Adrinette April 2019
by Wolfyred
Summary: I'm doing stuff for Adrinette April 2019! I'm going to try and do every day. Hopefully I'll do them all in order but, if needed I may have to rearrange the days. I'll try to put something up every day. I'm first posting these to my tumbler account There will be hits of lemon and lime. Nothing NSFW will be done though.
1. Day 1 - Just Friends

Adrien sat on a bench in the park and watched Marinette chase Alya around, trying to get her phone to erase a picture Alya had taken. Nino, sitting beside him, let out a chuckle.

"That is just too dang cute," Nino commented as Alya was just standing there holding her phone really high in her hand while Marinette jumped trying to reach it. Both boys chuckled.

Adrien felt happy right then. Here he was, sitting with people that he knows care about him. The 4 of them had grown close over the past 3 years.

Nino was the best bud he could ever ask for. Alya was brash and pulled him into her escapades whether he wanted to go along or not. Marinette would always at least try to keep Alya on track and make sure everyone was having fun.

Alya caught his interest again as she squealed when Marinette got close to grabbing the phone, almost toppling them both over.

"Oops, just missed," Alya yelled as she pulled away from Marinette and let the poor girl stumble, getting close to falling on the ground. Marinette saved herself at the last moment and righted herself as Alya started to run over to the playground. Marinette gave chase, both yelling and squealing as they ran around.

Alya suddenly darted away from Marinette and started running around the boys on the bench.

"Alya, please erase it! I look horrible!" Marinette pleaded while running after Alya.

"Only if you get it girl," Alya taunted back.

As Marinette rounded the bench in front of Nino she tripped on his slightly stuck out foot. She fell forward and landed across Adrien. Both of them were shocked for a moment. "Mari, are you alright?" Nino asked.

Marinette started to babble, "Yes, yes, it's ok, Adrien's ok, I'm ok!" she blurted out as she tried to push herself off Adrien. All she succeeded to do though was push against Adrien's shoulder too hard and topple them both from the bench. They lay on the ground, arms and legs tangled. Adrien felt a small blush creep across his cheeks while he noted that Marinette went a bright pink.

Alya and Nino burst out laughing.

"Oh, I gotta get this," Alya said as she quickly took a picture. Nino was about to take one himself when his phone rang.

He stepped away from them to take the call. Alya helped a blushing Marinette up, then a grinning Adrien up.

Nino turned back to them. "That was my dad, Chris's group is getting let out early and he needs me to go get him and take him home. Alya, want to come with me?" he asked.

"If Mari doesn't mind?" She glanced over and Marinette shook her head. "Sure, we can play some video games too. Chris likes that dancing one we do, right?"

Nino nodded. Alya grabbed Nino's arm and waved bye to Marinette and Adrien. Saying she'd text Marinette later.

"W-well," Marinette stammered. "I guess we should go too?"

"Sure," Adrien said. "I actually managed to convince my father that I needed an afternoon off and that's how I have the whole of today free. Told him that I was feeling a little tired and I need a mental break as we had just finished up some big projects at school. I was a little surprised that he let me take the whole day off."

Marinette was glad. She knew it was her's and the others influence that Adrien was finally standing up to the ridiculous schedule his father imposed on him.

Marinette grabbed her purse from under the bench and motioned to Adrien to follow her. "We could go back to my place and play some video games too, if you want to that is, unless you want to go somewhere else. We could go to a movie or window shopping. We could even go to a museum or the zoo..." She was starting to babble again. She trailed off, wishing that she could keep it under control.

Adrien chuckled, "Video games at your place sounds fine. Could we get some treats from your parents while we play?" He asked as his eyes lit up. He guided her out of the park and towards her home above the bakery.

Marinette stuck out her tongue, "Like they wouldn't insist anyway." She rubbed the back of her head with one hand. They walked towards her home, each in comfortable silence.

Adrien liked that over the years Marinette had managed to open up towards him. He had originally thought that the gum incident all those years ago might have ruined any chance they had at becoming friends. It turned out that it really wasn't a problem and after years of hanging out together the stammering and panicked movements that she always used to do started to disappear.

They had managed to spend lots of time together on their own or with Alya and Nino. He felt close to her. She had told him in detail about her dreams of being a designer, showed him lots of outfits she drew. He even got to help her with a jacket she wanted to create. When he saw how good it had come out he had encouraged her to enter it into a fashion competition. It wasn't one of his fathers, but he encouraged her to enter those too. She won many of them and he was glad that he was there to help her celebrate every win, and offer support for those she did loose. He wanted to be there for her with whatever life threw her way.

Marinette had been thinking the same types of thoughts as they walked back to her place. That first year she wouldn't have even been able to ask him over, let alone actually think of asking. As they got to know each other she realized that she had put him on a little bit of a celebrity pedestal. She still loved him, but it had mellowed to a steady flame.

He had finally told her about his feelings towards his father a little bit. She didn't think she knew all of it but she could better understand why he tried to please him so much sometimes. Knowing that he was just as human as her is what had dulled the intensity of her love for him. While she still wanted to be more to him, she was happy just being there to support him when his schedule took a lot out of him, mentally or physically.

They got back to the bakery and let her folks know that they were going to play video games in her room. Sabine loaded up a plate of cookies, croissants, that cheese bread Adrien seemed to like, and other pastries and watched them go upstairs.

Tom and Sabine looked wistfully between each other, each wondering when they were going to become more than 'Just Friends.'


	2. Day 2 - Seat Buddies

"Just my bad luck," Adrien thought as he sprinted to the school bus. "Stupid Akuma almost makes me miss the class trip." The Akuma wasn't too hard to beat, it's just that it happened a short while before the class was to get on the bus for a school trip. He had seen a number of students get hit and turned into cute little sheep so he could use that as an excuse if he needed too.

Adrien hops into the bus only to almost bump into a wheezing Marinette standing at the top of the steps. It looked like she had been running too.

"Sorry Mlle Bustier, I found myself so far away after the Akuma effects were cured by Ladybug. I ran back as fast as I could. But I wasn't sure where I was at first and I went down the wrong street..." Marinette was doing her usual rambling and arm waving motions as she tried to explain why she was almost late for the bus.

"It's ok," Mlle Bustier said is a gentle voice. Using her hands to calm down Marinette. "You actually made it on time despite the attack."

Marinette quickly scanned the students in the seats in the bus trying to see where Alya was. She saw her about half-way down sitting with Nino.

"Marinette, you and Adrien will have to share the last open seat near the back of the bus." Mlle Bustier gestured towards the back, arm raised to the where the last seat was open.

Marinette glanced behind herself to see Adrien on the steps of the bus. Very close to her back. It took a whole lot of control to not squeal, jump or flail her arms as her brain took in the slightly winded boy.

"Hey Marinette, looks like we'll be seat buddies." Adrien gave her a small smile and made to move up the steps.

Marinette gave a small squeak and tried not to rush down the isle to the seat in the back. Alya gave her a thumbs up as she went past, only making Marinette blush a little and hurry her steps.

As Adrien walked past Nino he noticed that Nino gave him a slight smile and nodded his head. Adrien at first thought that it was just in greeting, but something niggled in the back of his mind that it had been meant to be more 'sly'.

Marinette slid into the seat first and shuffled to her left to get close to the window. Making sure her school bag was under her feet and her purse was in her lap. Adrien placed his bag in the same position as Marinette's when he sat down.

Marinette turned to Adrien and gave him a grin then quickly turned to look out the window.

Adrien tried to smile back before she had turned but didn't quite make it. He sighed. He had thought that being seat buddies might give him a chance to talk to Marinette, usually Alya and Nino were around to keep the conversation flowing but, he guessed she just wasn't interested in talking right now.

He glanced towards Nino as the bus started up. Nino was gesturing with his fingers. Kind of waving them with them pointed down. Adrien scrunched up his nose as he tried to figure out what Nino was trying to imply.

Nino sighed and made a bigger gesture. He pointed at Adrien then pointed at Marinette and then mimed talking with his hands.

Adrien got it and gave Nino a nod to show he understood. He then turned towards Marinette and and said, "I noticed that you were almost late for the bus too. Do you get hit by the Akuma?"

Marinette shyly turned her face towards him but didn't look up at him. "Yeah. S-somehow I ended up ab-about 5 blocks away from the school." It took a lot of effort from her, trying to talk to Adrien while sitting so close to him. She had gotten better at talking to him without stuttering but, the closeness was wreaking havoc on her.

"Wow, I only got shoved by the people running away, I didn't get hit. What was it like being a sheep?" Good topic, it was bound to be fresh in her brain.

"Well, um, it was, ah," Marinette was furiously trying to think up something to describe it. After all, she had been fighting the Akuma, not running around as a sheep. "I can't remember much but it..."

The bus chose that moment to save her, or make things worse for her (depending on your view point), by going over a bump in the road. The back seats tossed up the students on both sides a little bit and Marinette and Adrien were jostled together.

Adrien put up a hand to hold Marinette's shoulder and Marinette's hand landed on Adrien's thigh in an effort to steady herself. She realized where she was touching Adrien and blushed. She pulled her hand away and started to apologize.

"No worries," Adrien said. Though he made no effort to remove his hand and Marinette blushed a little more.

The bus hit another bump and swayed side to side too. Marinette and Adrien had to hold onto each other as they were jostled even more. Adrien even started to blush at how much the bus was tossing them together. Both of them had their hands bumping into each other as they tried to straighten out only to have the bus jostle them more.

It was almost a continuous series of jostling, a moment to recover and then another jostle. This was not very conductive to a conversation where both were apologizing every few moments for bumping into each other and grabbing shoulders, arms, thighs and knees in an effort to stay off each other.

After a few more blushes Adrien had an idea. "Hey Marinette, let's try this." He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. When they were next jostled they more swayed in their seat together and it was a lot better than the bumping they had been doing.

"Y-yeah, w-way better," Marinette was glad that at this angle Adrien couldn't see her face well. She thought she might be as red and Nathanel's hair.

"The swaying is almost like dancing, don't you think?" Adrien looked down at Marinette.

Marinette looked up, hoping her face wasn't too red and agreed. They nestled together some more and started chatting about the museum the trip was to. The Château d'Écouen holds the Musée National de la Renaissance. Marinette was looking forward to seeing the furniture and textiles of the renaissance and Adrien wanted to see the stained glass windows, especially the one of King Francis I.

The bus left the rocky area of the road and stopped jostling them around but neither noticed. They were too busy chatting with their seat buddy.


	3. Day 3 - Embarrassing

Day 3 - Embarrassing

Marinette awoke in the middle of a very large bed. She didn't know where she was. The bed was covered in rich satin sheets, a dark blue colour, with a thick down comforter spread over top. She tried to sit up, but her head started to spin wildly. She sank back down into the mattress with a groan.

A soft noise came from somewhere in the room and a shadow soon fell upon her head, giving her some shielding from the brightness of the sun. "Well, looks like you're finally among the land of the conscious." A soft male voice spoke.

Marinette groaned again. "If you can't magic away my headache, leave me alone."

"No can do Marinette," the soft voice spoke again. "We should get this into you. You'll feel better soon."

A couple of hands helped her to sit up and she felt a warm body close to hers, so she lent against it for support. A couple of headache pills were put into one of her hands and a glass of water was put in the other. Unthinkingly she swallowed the pills with the water and leaned back into the warm body by her side.

The warm body stiffened for a moment and then it took the glass of water out of her hand and leaned over somewhere to put the glass down.

"This is nice," Marinette whispered. "Can I go back to sleep right here?" She murmured.

"Unfortunately not. We should get you out of bed and get some food into you." The hands gently pushed Marinette up and the warm body tried to move away.

"Nooo," Marinette protested. She threw her arms around the warm body and snuggled closer, breathing in the sent of the person she was holding onto. It smelled of leather, alcohol, croissants and faintly of cheese.

As her brain processed the scent, the alcohol triggered a memory in her. Last night her, Alya, Nino and Adrien had gone out to celebrate her turning 18 a few days before. She had had her first 'mixed drink'. It had given her the courage to ask Adrien to dance.

After dancing for a bit she had another mixed drink, different from the first one she had had. They all talked for a bit and she had started her third drink, larger and more colourful than the others. About half an hour later she was completely sloshed and she found out that she was a light weight drinker. 3 drinks in 3 hours and she was all over Adrien.

Adrien had been a little embarrassed and Alya mentioned she'd take Marinette home. If they could get Marinette to let go of Adrien's arm. After a few minutes it looked like she wasn't giving up so Adrien said he'd take her home. They got her into his car and buckled in. As they were driving to the bakery Marinette had mentioned that her parents weren't home. They had gone out with her Uncle who was visiting from China again. They were taking in the sights in a small town for the day and were staying at a hotel overnight.

Adrien had said that he shouldn't leave Marinette alone while she was like that, and she had said back to him that she'd love to be alone with him. She had felt Adrien stiffen again and she tried to lean over to him and said she trusted being alone with him, after all, she loved him.

She didn't remember much after that other than waking up with a very pounding headache. She then realized, again, that she was in a bed. Clinging onto a warm, very male, body. She glanced down at herself and saw she was in a large t-shirt. She couldn't tell if she had any undergarments on. She slowly looked up and her blue eyes locked with green ones. A blush started across her cheeks.

A blush was also slowly creeping along the cheeks just under those green eyes and the soft voice said, "I'm guessing you're remembering some of last night?"

She nodded mutely, the blush getting darker.

"I'd like to inform you that nothing untowards happened. After you told me your folks were out of town I brought you here to my place. I didn't want to leave you alone to stumble around and possibly hurt yourself. Nathalie met us at the door and she helped you into that shirt." The blush on both sets of cheeks got darker.

"I helped Nathalie get you into the guest bedroom when you began to be uncooperative and you grabbed my waist and wouldn't let go." Adrien felt like his whole face was in flames, and Marinette's didn't look to much better to him.

"Nathalie saw that you weren't letting go and she said that as long as I left the door open then it shouldn't be a problem if I slept here with you. She doubted that you could do anything in that state anyway."

Adrien felt like the flames of his face were now up to the top of his head and all the way down to his stomach.

Marinette's eyes couldn't get any larger and she too felt like her whole body was in flames from sheer embarrassment. "Uh huh," she blindly muttered. Her mind wasn't there. It was off screaming, 'I slept with Adrien! I shared a bed with Adrien! And I can't remember ANY OF IT!' as it ran around somewhere where all lost minds went.

Adrien finally tore his gaze from Marinette and he continued while scratching the back of his head, "I managed to take of my shoes and top off so we could sleep easier and when I woke up about an hour ago I went and changed my shirt in my room. I came back here and watched some TV so you wouldn't be alone when you woke up. Nathalie brought you the pills about half an hour ago."

Marinette at this point realized that she was still holding Adrien as he sat beside her on the bed. Her brain suddenly ran back and slam dunked itself into her head. "Oh My God!" she squeaked. She let go of Adrien, grabbed the sheets, pulled them around herself and tired to stand up on the bed, but that didn't work out so she fell over. Adrien caught her before she could hit the floor.

Their faces were close. Neither breathed for a moment. Then Adrien seemed to compose himself. He placed Marinette on her feet as he stood up. He pulled the sheet around her tighter and stepped away.

"I'll let you get changed," he pointed to her clothes neatly folded on a dresser by the bed. "I'll wait outside the door and I'll take you down to get something to eat. You can call your parents and let them know where you are."

Marinette watched him walk away and out of the room. As he reached the door he turned back and said with an impish grin, "And maybe we can talk about you wanting to be alone with me."

Marinette silently screamed, she had never been so embarrassed before in all her life.


	4. Day 4 - Hide me

Marinette and Adrien were chatting near the lockers. It was the morning of the end of the first week of the last year of school and Marinette could finally talk to Adrien with looking crazy.

"Adrikins?!" was soon heard being yelled outside the locker room. While Chloe had finally given up on trying to get Adrien to be her boyfriend, she was still demanding he do things for her, like take her shopping, be her partner in class and taking her to events to show off her status.

"Hide me," he pleaded to Marinette.

Marinette quickly shoved Adrien into her locker and closed the door.

Chloe propped open the door to the locker room and stuck her head in. "Marinette, have you seen Adrien? I need him to do something for me."

"Haven't seen him since he left the room. Sorry." Marinette shrugged her shoulders.

With a flick of her hair Chloe left and started searching elsewhere.

Marinette opened her locker and Adrien stepped out.

"Thanks Mari." He smiled at her.

"No problem Adrien."

—-

Marinette was in the gym helping Alya and Nino fold up a large multicoloured sheet that had been used in some games during class. Adrien burst in the door looking agitated and rushed over to the 3 of them.

"Hide me! Lila is looking for me." Adrien stated with fear in his eyes. While Lila had been outed for the liar she was, and everyone avoid her whenever they could, she still tried to get Adrien into compromising positions to force him to go out with her.

Marinette quickly signalled to Alya and Nino to unfold the sheet and for Adrien to get on the floor on all fours. They draped the sheet over him so he couldn't been seen and Marinette sat on his back like he was a box or bench. Alya and Nino stood beside them and they started talking about a class project.

Lila stormed into the gym and started looking around. After a moment Alya called out to her, "Looking for something?"

Lila marched over, "Where is Adrien?"

"We don't have to tell you where he is. We don't have to tell you anything." Alya crossed her arms and turned her head away.

Both Nino and Marinette had sour looks on their faces. Lila realized they wouldn't tell her anything. She harrumph and stormed back out of the gym.

Marinette got off Adrien and Nino helped him up as Alya remove the sheet.

"Adrien, what is going on today? First Chloe, now Lila, do you know what's up?" Marinette enquired.

Adrien sighed, "The Mayor is giving a ball at the end of the month. They just announced it this morning. It's to help raise funds to revamp some of the smaller museums around the city since the council passed the bill to allow repairs to be done on historic buildings that had been objected to in previous years."

"And they both want you to take them?" Alya said.

"Probably, I haven't given them a chance to ask. Father hasn't even told me if he wants me to attend of not. If I don't have to, I don't want to go." Adrien slumped his shoulders.

As the 4 of them went to walk out of the gym, after putting the sheet away, Nino said, "Why not take Mari if you have to go?"

Marinette sucked in her breath. "You don't have to Adrien. In fact your father may want you to go with a certain someone if he wants you to go."

Adrien shrugged again, "I'll wait to see if he wants me to go first before I trouble you about going."

"It wouldn't be any trouble." Marinette blushed and shyly looked away.

"But I know you would want to make you're own dress for something like this and I don't want you to go to any trouble if we don't end up going." Adrien brushed the back of his had down Marinette's arm as he said this, sending little shivers up Marinette's back.

"But you'll be the first I tell if I have to go."

—-

They were back in the locker room at the end of the day when Adrien saw Stephan through the windows of the room. He just knew that Stephan would try to get Marinette to go to the ball with him even if Mari yelled no right in his face.

Stephan was a kid who had started halfway through last year with the class. For some reason he had decided that Marinette was the woman he was meant to be with. Despite her saying no, pushing him away, avoiding him very openly, he just wouldn't leave her alone. He would pull her into a hug or wrap an arm around her waist. He had tried to kiss her on numerous occasions and usually wouldn't leave Marinette alone until someone would get between them or take Marinette away.

Marinette heard Stephan call out her name as he approached the locker room.

"Marinette my sweet little flower! Where are you! There's a ball going on at the end of the month! You are coming with me! I need to tell you what dress to wear." Stephan called out and could be heard clearly through the closed doors.

"Uuggghh," Marinette moaned. She looked up at Adrien and pleaded with him. "Hide me?"

Adrien chuckled and pushed Marinette into his locker and followed her inside.

"A-adrien?" She stammered.

"Shhhh," he put a finger on her lips.

They heard Stephan calling out, he entered the locker room and looked all around, calling for Marinette. He even tried to open Marinette's locker in-case she was in there. They finally heard him leave after 10 minutes or so of searching.

Finally after they were sure he was gone they both giggled.

"Why did you get in the locker too?" Marinette asked.

Adrien rolled his eyes, "The last time I talked to Stephan when he had been looking for you he went on for about 15 minutes about how beautiful and talented and smart you were, and then spent another 15 telling me about how the 2 of you were meant to be together and then another 5 minutes warning me off you in the nicest way he possibly could. I just didn't want to talk to him either."

They giggled again and Adrien tried to open the locker. It didn't budge. Marinette laughed out loud. "I could have told you that most of the lockers don't open from the inside. I've unfortunately been locked in once or twice by accident before."

Adrien looked sheepish. Marinette grabbed her phone from her purse and called Alya. She would tease them about it for while but that was better than being locked in the locker over the weekend.

Now they just had to survive being in close quarters until Alya and Nino came to their rescue.


	5. Day 5 - Clumsy

Clumsy, was not a way to describe Ladybug. It was a way to describe Marinette.

Clumsy, was the way Marinette would trip over her own two feet when she thought about Adrien.

Clumsy, was the way Marinette would knock over things when she heard Adrien's voice behind her.

Clumsy, was the way Marinette would trip down the stairs when she got distracted by Adrien standing at the bottom.

Clumsy, was the excuse Marinette would mutter when Adrien would catch her as she fell.

Clumsy, was the word Adrien softly said as he helped Marinette up after she tripped on her own two feet.

Clumsy, was the thought Adrien would think while he helped her to clean up the things Marinette sometimes knocked over.

Clumsy, was the word knocked out of Adrien's chest when Marinette would fall into his arms.

Clumsy, was the thing Adrien hoped Marinette would keep being when he held her.


	6. Day 6 - Secrets

Adrien looked around before he crept into the storage closet. If any one caught him doing this he would be in so much trouble. It was a secret that he held close to himself. He had a secret addiction and he needed to feed it.

He used to only have to feed the addiction on rare occasions. But over the last three months his dad had him getting ready for a big fashion show, a whole new fashion line, that had him doing many more photo shoots then usual. He was stressed and the need got stronger and when it turned into a once a week thing, he had to let some in on the secret to help him get it more often. That was his downfall. The secret between the two of them turned from a once a week thing into a daily meeting during school.

With everyone going and coming for lunch it was easy for them to meet up then.

Marinette was already in the storage closet. After he closed the door she turned on her phone to give them some light. "Adrien, I don't know if I can keep doing this. I'm having trouble keeping this a secret. Alya has noticed me not showing up for the beginning of lunch. My mom has noticed me acting strange too. She asked me if I'm in trouble. "

Marinette dropped her eyes to her hands holding the phone, they shook a little. Adrien noticed.

"Please Mari, keep the secret for me? Just a little longer?" He grasped her shoulders and pulled her a little closer. They wasn't a lot of extra space in closet and they could feel the heat rising off their bodies in the confined area. "I need you, I need this," He pleaded.

Adrien dropped his forehead to Marinette's. Their breaths mingled. Adrien could smell the sweet scents clinging to Marinette because she lived above the bakery. Marinette could smell the heady sweaty scent of Adrien as he was so stressed and she could feel the need pouring off of him.

"Once all this trouble with my schedule is over next month, I won't need it this much. I just need it now. I need it from you." Adrien's breath became raspy, he ran his hands up and down Marinette's arms as he spoke. As if just the simple touch could stall the need from overpowering him.

Marinette shivered from his touch. She knew it was wrong. What she was doing was not going to help Adrien in the long run. This stressful secret need of his was going to get them in trouble. Keeping this secret, meeting in secret, was taking a toll on her.

She knew if Adrien's dad found out they would both be in so much trouble. If their friends found out, they just wouldn't understand. This secret was consuming her and it wasn't even hers.

"Adrien, do you promise that after next month we won't have to keep this a secret any longer?"

Adrien breathed a sigh of relief. "Yes, I should only need this every once in a while after that. We won't need to keep it a secret any longer. It's just the frequency that I need it is what I want to keep secret right now. But," he cupped Marinette's chin and gently pulled her face up to look into her eyes. "I'll still need you to help me feed this need. Only you."

Marinette gulped and reach behind herself with the hand not holding the phone. Her hand encountered a small box and she clumsily grabbed it. She put it into the small space between herself and Adrien.

Adrien looked down feeling a box touching his stomach. "Mari," he breathed out, "Thank you."

Adrien reverently took the box from Marinette and opened it. There, by the light of the phone, was three passion-fruit macarons. He leaned towards Marinette's face and gently kissed her forehead.

"I would never have suspected you for stress eating Adrien," Marinette quipped. She watched a look of pure bliss settle onto his features as he bit into the first one. "Really, you should tell your dad that this is stressing you out so much. The stress and macarons aren't healthy."

Adrien licks the crumbs off his fingers and replies, "He's never done a campaign this big with me before. It's a double line of men's and women's outfits with piles of shoes and accessories. Once the big show is over next month he's giving me two weeks off of all photo shoots, appearances and my extra activities to recover. And I wouldn't call this stress eating. I'm just getting a sugar craving and macarons from your folks bakery really hit the spot."

"But what is so wrong with you having a sweet or two?" Marinette pleaded.

Adrien shrugged, "Normally nothing. I usually manage to get sweets every so often, but right now they want to keep me at a healthy, but stable, weight until this is all over. They worry that the slightest bit of extra weight will throw off the whole look of the clothes on me and the other models. So for all of us it's a filling and nutritious meal plan with no extra sugar."

Marinette started to look guilty.

Adrien closed the box, saving the other 2 macarons for later. "Hey, it's alright. I haven't gained any inches anywhere. You aren't going to ruin the show."

"How did you know I was thinking about that?" Marinette enquired.

"I know you know fashion. You know how important keeping an outfit fitting a model is. It's alright." He kissed her forehead again.

"Fine," Marinette sighed heavily. "I'll keep the secret macarons a secret until next month. You know my mom and dad would give you these no problem. I hate having to sneak them out."

"I know, and for that I thank you. But if my dad or Nathalie ever saw me with a Boulangerie Patisserie bag or box, I'd be grounded until the show was over." Adrien placed the plain box into his school bag and cracked the door of the storage closet. He looked around as best as he could.

"You go first," He motioned for Marinette to head out the door. "I'll follow in a couple of minutes."

Marinette smiled and snuck out of closet and strolled as non-nonchalantly as she could.

Adrien waited a few minutes before following Marinette. Happy in the secret they shared.


	7. Day 7 - Sweet tooth

Marinette couldn't understand where he was putting it all. For the past month she had been bringing in sweets left over from her parents bakery for her, Adrien, Alya and Nino to share before class.

Adrien and Nino were sitting at their desks but turned around so they could easily chat with the girls behind them.

As they chatted everyone would reach in the bag and pull out a treat from the bakery. Whenever Adrien got a cheese bread stick he would wrap it in a napkin and put it in his schoolbag. He had once told Marinette that he liked to have them after photo shoots and asked if she didn't mind if he kept them for that.

The teacher came in and Marinette put the bag of treats away. The rest would be saved for a snack between classes or to have at lunch.

Class got under way and everybody started taking notes.

There wasn't much time between classes so the snacks were left in Marinette's bag until lunch.

Out in the courtyard Adrien sat on a bench and made sure no one was around. He leaned down to his bag and reached in to grab the lunch the nutritionist had had packed for him today.

"Hey Plagg? Did you get the cheese bread already?" he spoke in a hushed tone.

"It was heavenly. If you don't marry that baker's daughter I will. That cheese bread was divine." Plagg rubbed his belly while looking up at Adrien. He had thoroughly enjoyed the treat. In fact, having at least one piece every school day for the last month had kind of spoiled the "tiny god" a little.

Adrien laughed, "Plagg, she's just a friend. A very good friend."

Plagg noticed that Adrien didn't actually dispute the 'marry' part.

"Adrien!" a voice called out.

He looked up and around the courtyard and saw Marinette jogging in. Her backpack bouncing up and down behind her.

"AlyaNinogoinglunchoutsideschool," she proclaimed in a rush as she stopped beside him.

"Oh, they wanted to eat out? Did you want to join them Marinette?" he asked.

Marinette rubbed the back of her neck, "No, nononono. They, uh, they wanted to have lunch together since they have just started dating."

Adrien remembered Nino telling him that not too long ago. "Ah, a little one on one time." He waggled his eyebrows as that is what Nino had done when he talked about going on a date with Alya soon.

Marinette felt her cheeks turn bright pink. She turned her head quickly and remembered that she still had the bag of treats. "Oh," she sat beside Adrien and reached into her backpack to get the bag out.

"Did you want some more cookies or cheese bread?" She proffed the open bag.

"Yes, please. Thank you Marinette," he pulled out a macaron and munched on it.

Marinette pulled out another cheese bread and offered it to him. "I know you like these a lot. Would you like the last one for later?"

Adrien laughed, knowing full well that if he put it in his bag now Plagg would make it disappear in seconds. He took it from her and wrapped it in another napkin and placed it in a side pocket so he could make sure Plagg got it later instead of now. "Thank you."

They sat in silence for a moment. Each eating their lunch.

"Oh no. Oh my gosh. Adrien! I'm so sorry!" Marinette exclaimed almost dropping her sandwich in the process.

Adrien was a little shocked and concerned. "What? What's wrong?"

"I keep giving you sweets. I'm ruining your diet, you're going to gain weight and then you won't be able to model and your dad is going to be mad at me and he'll make sure that I'm never allowed to bring you food ever again and ..." Marinette started to run out of breath.

Adrien laughed, a joyfully and blusterous sound. "Marinette, calm down. You're not ruining my diet."

Marinette stared at him with eyes wide with disbelief. "I'm not?" She hesitantly enquired.

"No, you're not." He leaned a little closer, "I've always had a sweet tooth." He whispered, then leaned back and said, "I manage to get sweets no problem. I just make sure I work off the extra. And I'm always good and make sure I get plenty of non-sweet foods to keep a balance. My nutritionist wants me healthy so I do get occasional sweet foods as part of my diet. But I do love my sweet treats when I get them." To show her it was fine he dipped his hand into the bag again and pulled out another macaron, popping it in his mouth and chewing gleefully.

Marinette giggled.

They chatted some more and finished their lunches. Marinette put the last of the treats into her backpack, to save them for Alya and Nino.

As they got up Adrien thought of something, "Hey Marinette?" He glanced down at her as she gathered up her things.

"Yes?"

"How about if we jog back to class together. Then you can help me work off all the sugar you fed me?"

"...ok." Marinette shyly looked at Adrien.

Adrien held out his hand so they could jog together. Marinette slipped her hand into his and off they went.


	8. Day 8 - A favour only you can do

PS: I'm Canadian! We like 'U'.

Day 8 - A favour only you can do

Adrien and Marinette were out together in a fabric store. She was building a portfolio to get her into university and she had a great design for a Chat Noir themed dress suit. The biggest problem was she couldn't find the right fabric for pants.

She wanted something that looked like leather but hung loose and would sway on the legs as the person wearing them walked. While she found lots of leather like material in all shades of black, she couldn't find anything that was loose and flexible enough to sway.

"Arugh, this is hopeless." Marinette was very frustrated. "The fifth store and I can't find what I want." She raked her fingers through her loose hair and placed her hands on her hips, glaring around the store.

Adrien placed his hand on her shoulder. "There are a couple more stores we can check out. You'll find it. How long until you need to present the outfit?"

"Three weeks," Marinette moaned. "It's not so bad though, I've done the Ladybug cocktail dress that's going with the Chat Noir suit. I'm almost done the jacket, the vest is complete. It's the pants that I haven't even started. All the other things for the portfolio are done. But if I can't get the Chat suit done, then I won't use the Ladybug dress and they both look so good together." Marinette had been pacing around the store as she talked. She just had to find the material for the pants.

She knew of the other stores Adrien was talking about and they weren't that high a quality as she wanted. They were good, but had rather generic fabric. There was no place bigger or better that she could go to…. or was there.

Marinette stopped in her pacing and turned to Adrien. She had stopped so suddenly that he almost ran into her as he tried to keep up.

Adrien noticed the look in her eye. It was rather wild and predatory. It actually caused him to back up a bit in fear. "Mari?" he asked hesitantly.

Marinette slowly closed her eyes and her face changed. Adrien saw the wildness look slowly leave and a look of hungry/sultriness took over. She opened her eyes only halfway. She started to slowly move closer to Adrien. She placed her hands on his chest and slowly ran them up to his neck, wrapping her arms behind his head she made sure to lean her entire body into him.

Adrien had a sudden feeling like he was the main course at a swanky dinner and Marinette was incredibly hungry. He felt heat rise from his collar as she breathed in, expanding her chest against him. "Adrien?" she rasped as she breathed out.

"Y-yes?" he stammered.

"Can you please get your dad to let me go into his fabric warehouse and see if there is the material I need?" She intoned in a low sultry voice. Her fingers of her right hand moved to the top of his head and started to play with his hair. Her left hand moved to his chin and started to scratch just underneath.

"I know he should have just the fabric I need. Please Adrien? Please?" she had moved her mouth close to his ear and made the last please a needy breath that fluttered over it. "You're the only one who could convince your dad to do it. It's a favour only you can do."

Adrien felt the blood rush to his face as he turned redder than he had in a while. "A, ye-yah ahh umm….." Coherent thought was the last thing he was capable of so he nodded his head, giving in to her.

"Great!" Marinette's face lit up with joy and she pulled away and bounced up and down with glee. "Don't worry, I've got enough to actually buy it from him. I've been saving up for this and I knew this would be an expensive fabric. Come on then," she started to move to the door of the shop and gestured to him. "Let's get going!"

Adrien felt his jaw drop as she bounced away, skipping towards the limo. After three years of dating, he still couldn't figure her out. He chuckled to himself and started to follow her.

Now to see if he could grant her this favour.


	9. Day 9 - Birthday gifts

Adrien climbed up the steps into Marinette's childhood room. They were getting the last of her stuff to complete the move into their house.

"Hello new wife!" He called as his head popped up into the room.

"Hello new husband," Marinette looked over and blew him a kiss.

Adrien continued up the stairs and looked around the room. There wasn't much left for them to take anymore. This was their 4th trip as they couldn't take too much in the limo at a time. The first 3 trips dealt with a lot of small boxes, nick-knacks, CDs, small pieces of furniture and lots of clothes. Not only was there her wardrobe but her parents had kept all the special projects that she had done throughout school for various event, projects and portfolio items.

"Are we taking the bed for our guest room?" There was the bed, her dresser, 2 huge trunks and whatever small boxes Marinette was going through in the bottom of her, almost empty, closet.

"The bed and dresser are staying here. The loft bed really won't work in our new place. Mama and Papa are going to convert this into a guest room so they'll need it. One of the trunks is coming with us but the other is being emptied and left here." Marinette said over her shoulder.

Adrien walked over to the two big chests and opened the first one. He started to reach in and as he was about to grab a brightly coloured box he realized that it looked like a present. He picked it up and turned it around in his hands. He then noticed a tag on it and read it aloud. "To Adrien, Happy Birthday, From Marinette."

Marinette's head shot up, "What?!" she cried out.

Adrien leaned back to say, "It looks like a birthday present for me from you. There is a sticky note on it that says 39." He looked at the others and noted they seemed all like birthday presents of various sizes and each had a sticky note with a different number on it.

"Mon Dieu." Marinette scrambled to get up and over to the chest and ended up kinda of crawling on all fours. "I total forgot about those." She pushed Adrien to the side and rummaged through the boxes. After much digging, while Adrien just watch her wondering what was going on, she exclaimed, "AhHa!"

She turned towards Adrien a reverently held out a long flat box that had a 24 on the sticky note. "I know this is about 4 months late, and I gave you one already, but,…..Happy Birthday honey."

Adrien was still at a loss and put the box he was holding down and took the proffed one. "What is this?" he wondered.

Marinette explained as he unwrapped the gift. "Well, remember how I had that big crush on you in college when we were aged 13 to 16?" Adrien nodded. "I kinda, sorta, made you birthday gifts to last to your 85th birthday. Took me a long time to do but," she shrugged, "after the problems I had with the first few gifts to you I wanted to make sure that I had my name signed on all my gifts, and I kept thinking of things you would like, sooo…." she trailed off.

Adrien chuckled and took out the knitted sweater. It was a light tan colour with black paw prints and ladybugs around the bottom. He laughed and stood up to put it on.

"I stopped about half way through lycee when we accidentally revealed ourselves to each other." Marinette had watched as Adrien took off his button up shirt and pulled the sweater over his head.

"Umm.." Adrien said. "While it's lovely and well made and the pattern is fabulous, it's kind of tight under the arms and across the chest." He looked uncomfortable and pulled at the sweater in various places, trying to make it feel better.

"Well, back then I didn't know you were Chat Noir and didn't think you would gain that many muscles. I thought you would retain a sleek model figure." She stood up herself and started pulling at the sweater to see if she could adjust it in any manor. I was a lovely design and she would like it if Adrien could wear it.

Adrien grasped her hands and pulled them to his chest. "Mari," he kissed the tip of her nose. "I thought you would want me to have muscles. I can just imagine you staring at my posters and picturing yourself running your hands across my chest, as you softly whispered, 'Adrien' with that goofy eyed stare you had back then."

He chuckled and dodged a swat she made towards his arm. Since finding the box that contained all those posters that she had had up on her 'Adrien' wall he took great pleasure is teasing her.

"Well, I don't want to drag all these presents with us. I think you should open them and keep the ones you want. We can give out the others." Marinette sat down ad tried to organize the gifts by age, starting with the one for his 18th birthday. The first birthday he had after they had revealed. While they were both happy about who the other was, it actually took over a year for them to be really comfortable around each other again. She had bought him a less personalized, but still wonderful, present and had forgotten about the ones in her room.

Adrien took off the sweater and sat down, taking the first present she offered him. He noticed her blush that he was sitting there shirtless and puffed his chest out.

"Adrien, your Chat is showing," Marinette chided.

Adrien laughed and started opening the gifts. There was a bunch of various tops and some slacks, track pants, light jackets and a couple of more sweaters. Besides clothes she had also done some other type gifts, there was a messenger bag (22, for university), a ladybug onesie (26, hopefully married by then, pyjamas are very personal), a huge crocheted blanket (72, probably get cold a lot by then), a tablet case (21, again university) and a set of mittens, scarf and a hat (35, just because) that he wanted to keep. He tried on all the clothes and only 3 pieces fit him. The onesie, a t-shirt she had drawn a stylized Jagged Stone on and a white cardigan that had a ladybug and a black cat curled up together on the back.

"I'm so sorry Adrien, I honestly thought those would fit you as you grew up." Marinette sighed and finished packing the clothes into a box to give to charity. She had watched Adrien change in and out of the clothes and she still felt a slight blush on her cheeks.

Adrien finished pulling the t-shirt back on, despite it being for his 19 year old self, it fit surprisingly well. He leaned down and pulled Marinette up to him, he gently circled his arms around her waist and kissed her.

"Marinette, my little love bug, you couldn't know what size I'd actually be as I got older. That last growth spurt was way beyond what I expected. I'm 190.5 centimetres tall. I never expected to be this tall."

Marinette scrunched her brow as she thought of that. "Oh, you're right. I just assumed so many things when I made those gifts." She tried to pull away, suddenly embarrassed. "I went up to your 85th birthday. That's a little, no a lot, stalkery." She now felt bad for how crazy she had to have been to have gone that far.

"Hey," he pulled her close again, "Princess. Look up at me. I don't think it was crazy. A little presumptions, but not crazy. You imagined a whole life with me in it. A long life together. I take that as you loved me so much you wouldn't want to be apart from me. I know I don't want to be apart from you."

Marinette smiled and leaned in for another kiss. It was long, gentle and filled with so much tenderness and love, it almost brought tears to her eyes.

"Now come on Bugaboo," he smiled down after he finished kissing her. "We need to go through the other chest and then get the last of this stuff downstairs. We've got a life to begin together."


	10. Day 10 - Puns

Ummm….. just a note first… I suck at puns. I stole the first, the second and third are common and I think I made up the fourth? Not sure if anyone else has done it before. It's shameful, but I'm proud of how shameful it is. :b

"What do you call a pile of cats, a meow-tain."

"No Adrien."

"What? It wasn't claw-some enough?"

"Just no."

"Purr-ty please Mew-inette?"

"….Ok. I'm breaking up with you."


	11. Day 11 - Facetime

Marinette held the tablet in her hands as she lay on her bed. She was finally scrolling through the pictures she had taken during Alya's 16th birthday party last month. It had been so much fun. They had a small get together with most of the class.

She flipped through pictures: her and Alya; Nino and Alya kissing; Juleka and Kim laughing together; Rose, Max, Alix, Mylene and Ivan dancing as a group. There were a lot and everyone was having fun. She came across one with Adrien. He and Nino had been by the DJ table chatting. She saved it an album where she kept a lot of Adrien pictures.

She sighed, tilted the tablet down and said, "Tikki? Should I keep waiting?"

Tikki floated up from where she had been resting on Marinette's bed since the girl had come home from school. "You should do what feels right Marinette. Your heart won't steer you wrong. But you shouldn't wait too long."

"I know Tikki. It's just…" she rolled over onto her stomach, the little kwami following, "Sometimes I worry that all the waiting is going to drive me insane." She huffed out and put the tablet in front of her face. She bent her legs at the knees and crossed her ankles.

Tikki giggled, "Marinette, just wait a little longer. You'll see."

Her tablet made an noise that startled Mairnette for a moment. She fumbled with it and pressed the 'Accept FaceTime Request' button. Adrien's face and shoulders filled the screen.

"Hey Mari," he adjusted his tablet so he was more center in his frame and then looked at Marinette. "I've missed you."

"I've missed you to Adrien," she sighed.

Adrien smiled, "Well you won't miss me for much longer. We had some really incredibly great weather here and we are actually going to finish the shoot early. I'll be leaving the day after tomorrow."

Marinette smiled. Adrien had been scheduled for 11 days in Milan for a swim/beach fashion line for his father. She was actually looking forward to seeing him in swim trunks. At the age of 17 his dad was letting Adrien pose for more 'grown up' shots.

"Yay, you'll have to text me when you're home. Give yourself time to rest and recover first though. I've been keeping notes for you along with Nino for all your classes. There was a couple of tests that you missed but the teachers will be letting you do them later. Oh, and unfortunately you have been paired up with Chloe for a project in science." Marinette noticed that Adrien wasn't looking directly at his tablet anymore. He was kind of turning red and had his eyes turned away.

She pulled her tablet closer to herself and asked, "Adrien? Are you ok? You're kind of red."

Adrien had looked back at the tablet when Marinette pulled it closer and turned even more red, he screwed his eyes shut tight. "Ummm Mari, can you please re-angle your tablet?"

Marinette glanced down at the square on her tablet that showed what her camera was showing. With the way she was laying on her stomach the camera got her face, but it also was almost looking down her cleveage.

She squawked and tried to turnover while she flailed her arms trying to hold on to the tablet.

She ended up sliding between her bed and the wall with the tablet in the middle of the mattress.

"While the ceiling is nice I kind of would like to see your face during our FaceTime." Adrien chuckled from above her.

"Ugh," Marinette pulled herself up and grabbed the tablet, sitting cross legged on her bed. "I'm sorry Adrien."

"No problem princess. I like looking at you, but if someone were to come in here I don't want them seeing that." Adrien gave her a sly Chat like grin.

"Stop it." She blushed.

"Hey is Tikki there?" a little voice called from below Adrien's screen.

"Tikki few into camera range, "Hey Plagg. How are you doing?"

Plagg's face came up a little bit. He was trying to stay hidden in Adrien's shirt but wanted to see. "It's boring," he whined. "I have to either stay in the room or stay really hidden in Adrien's bag. There are so many people around. And Adrien hasn't fed me in days."

"Plagg," Adrien looked down and admonished the tiny creature. "I fed you at lunch, we're about to do dinner and I'll get you something then too."

"But I'm hungry now."

Marinette and Tikki laughed. "You're always hungry Plagg." Tikki teased. The little cat's ears twiched and he scooted out of sight. Tikki took that as a sign to get out of view too, while people couldn't see the kwamiis over techonolgy (they could see each other) she didn't want to divert Marinette's eyes and make people wonder what she was looking at.

"Adrien?" Marinette enquired.

A voice called out to Adrien from behind him somewhere off camera. "Mr. Agreste, dinner will be served in the common area in about 15 minutes."

Adrien looked over his shoulder. "Thank you Emmy. I'll be there soon." He turned back to Marinette. "Well I guess our FaceTime is over for now. Your folks should have your dinner soon too."

Marinette smiled. "Actually we're having dinner a little late. They're getting a big cake order ready for tomorrow and they're finishing the decorating now. I'll actually start making dinner for them in about half an hour."

"Ok. I wish I could eat your food instead of this stuff. It's all so fancy and unfortunately rather bland. Will you and your folks have me over again for dinner soon?" He asked.

"Sure, 2 days after you come back. I'll set it up. Now you go eat that horrible bland food so you can appreciate mine all the more when you get it." Marinette chuckled and pulled the tablet closer.

"I'll FaceTime you again around 9pm. Is that ok Mari?" Adrien had brought his tablet closer too.

"I'll be waiting." They both blew kisses to each other in anticipation of their next call.


	12. Day 12 - Adrien's girlfriend

"Hey there." Marinette had been absorbed in looking at an old 18th century dress and sketching out details that drew her, when a male voice spoke behind her.

"Oh sorry, I didn't know I was blocking your view." She moved off to the side so the guy could get closer to the mannequin and dress she was sketching for her first year studies at ESMOD.

He was about half a foot taller than Marinette and seem to tower over her. His slicked back dark hair was tied in a ponytail. He wore a brown jacket over a blue shirt and tan slacks, black shoes peeping out from below. Marinette couldn't imagine what he might be doing looking at 18th century fashions at the museum with the rest of her group, usually the other students at ESMOD had some sense of design they wanted to show off even if it was bad design. He was rather plain looking and his jacket looked like it had seen better days.

"No worries," he oozed, "you're the view I was wanting." He slid closer to her and leaned close. His eyes travelled up Marinette, taking in her low red heels, slim fit green jeans, light purple tank top and long sleeved white blouse she had buttoned halfway up. Marinette felt rather disgusted as he seemed to look at her like she was a piece of meat.

"Well, I'm sorry to say but I'm not interested is being someone's view." She stepped back and went to walk away to another outfit on a father away mannequin. She desperately looked for anyone else who might be from the school on this trip for the 3 fashion history classes that had come along.

The guy fell into step beside her, "My name is Enrique, what's yours?"

"Not interested," Marinette muttered. She tried to walk faster but he kept pace with her.

"Come on, a beautiful lady like you probably has a beautiful name." He grabbed Marinette's arm. "I was nice enough to tell you my name, the least you can do is tell me yours."

Marinette pulled her arm away, "I am not obligated to tell you my name even if you tell me yours. I'm not interest in knowing you. I would just like to sketch and be left alone."

Enrique leaned in closer to Marinette, trying to back her into a wall. "Hey if I'm being nice to you, you should be nice to me," his voice had become a little ticked off but Marinette didn't think he would cause a scene here.

"Now tell my your name." Enrique was starting to make Marinette worry. She wanted to shove him aside and run but she didn't want to cause any damage to any of the antiques in the museum.

"Her name is Adrien's girlfriend," a rough male voice said behind Enrique.

Enrique spun around and Marinette looked at the man behind him.

There stood a very stern looking Adrien Agreste. He was in white and blue loafers, crisp white slacks and a dark grey ESMOD shirt. He moved into the space between Marinette and Enrique, quietly asserting himself as calm and in command as he said, "My girlfriend is just trying to get on with her studies and she would appreciate it if you left her alone. She told you she wasn't interested. Now if you could please leave, we would both like to get on with our day."

For a moment it looked like Enrique would argue back, but the combination of Adrien standing a least an inch or two taller then him, the crowd they drew, the setting of the museum and Marinette pulling close to Adrien's back and wrapping an arm around him from behind, made him think better of it. He muttered under his breath something along the lines of, "Shitty bastard good-looking freaking models taking all the good-looking ladies."

Marinette and Adrien stood watching him stalk off. When he was gone from view both of them let out a breath that neither knew they were holding.

Adrien turned around and looked down at Marinette, he raked a hand through his blond hair, messing up the short locks a little. "Are you ok Marinette? He didn't do anything to you did he?"

Marinette blushed and shook he head. "No he actually hadn't gotten a chance to do anything."

Adrien attempted to brush Marinette's arm with his hand, "Good, I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner though. I saw him following you from over there and it looked like you were trying to get away."

"Yeah, I was trying to find anyone I know from school, get to them and see if he'd leave me alone." Marinette noticed his shirt, "I guess I did get to someone from school. Are you here as part of the fashion history classes?"

"Yeah, I guess we're unfortunately not in the same class." Adrien blushed a little, "Want to go to the cafe at the front and get a coffee?"

Marinette almost squealed. "I'd love to." They started walking to the cafe. Each was lost in their own thoughts. They saw each other often through Alya and Nino, so the friendship was still there between them, but they didn't really spend time together on their own.

They got to the cafe and ordered a couple of drinks and took them to a small table outside.

"I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable calling you my girlfriend back there. I just thought he might leave easier if you were unavailable to him."

"I don't mind being your girlfriend." Marinette realized she spoke out loud when Adrien blushed. "I mean being taken by you, you saying I'm your girlfriend, I mean your fake girl," Marinette stopped the words rushing out of her mouth, breathed and said, "Thank you Adrien for telling him I was your girlfriend in order to have him leave me alone. I don't mind that you said it to protect me."

They both paid a little more attention to their drinks for a moment. Adrien then softly spoke, "Would you like to be?"

Marinette was shocked. "You mean you and me actually dating?"

"Yeah. I like you Marinette. It would be nice if we could get to know each other better." He placed his hand palm up on the table between them. He had realized long ago that while Ladybug seamed to like Chat Noir better now, it would be really hard for them to date without revealing themselves. At that time he started to notice Marinette more and realized he really would like to get know her better.

Marinette thought about her crush on him back in College, how obsessive it had been when she didn't really know him. She had started to ease off the crushing in Lycee and had found herself starting to be more attracted to Chat during their superhero duties. But she knew she couldn't be with him unless they revealed and they just couldn't do that yet. Should she go back to her first crush? He was sitting there, waiting. His hand still open, letting her make the next move.

"Yes, I would like to date you and get to know you better." Maybe with getting to know him this way it could turn into something that would last. She slipped her hand into his and they both smiled.


	13. Day 13 - Good luck

Here it was, the gawd awful hour of 9am on a Saturday. And Marinette was awake.

She was up to help her father take pastries over to an event at the park close to the bakery. He hadn't told her what the event was, just that it was happening and he needed help. They had loaded boxes and boxes of various items on a flatbed dolly. There were 4 different kinds of muffins, croissants filled with chocolate, apples, strawberries and some plain. There were different types of scones and sweet biscuits, pain du chocolate and other sweet treats.

It turns out it was for the morning break of a photo shoot. She helped her dad set up a table for the various models and crew to snack from. As she helped she looked around to take it all in. One day when she was a famous designer, she'd be at a photo shoot like this for her clothes.

"Marinette!" a voice called. She looked over to see Adrien walk over.

"A-adrien. Good see you this morning. I mean, good to see you this morning," she stammered.

"Good morning. This is incredibly lucky. Your folks pastries are the best." Adrien snagged a chocolate croissant and a raisin scone. Adrien gestured for Marinette to walk with him.

She looked at her dad. Since most of the table was set up he smiled and nodded. "You can stay for a bit, but don't forget that you have homework to do. I'll head back to the bakery when I'm done here."

Marinette hugged him and walked after Adrien.

"This is a wonderful bright spot after the morning we've had." Adrien raised the scone he was eating.

"Why? Have things not been going well?" Marinette asked, concerned.

Adrien sat down on a bench and Marinette sat down too. "Well nothing too bad. We've been here since before 6am for sunrise shots, I'm already a little tired and the fact that we don't have proper changing areas is making things a little slow."

Marinette looked around and noticed that a few models are lined up beside a very small curtained area. Some looking very cross.

Adrien continued, "We're here doing a shoot for a new athletic line. There is sports wear and swimwear and running shoes. Unfortunately the truck that had the gear for the temporary changing areas hasn't shown up and no one has been able to get a hold of them. Someone found some drop cloths but there is only 1 changing area and it only has enough space for 1 person at a time. This makes it slow going between scenes. Plus the clothes weren't organized properly and the person who was to do that was on the missing truck."

Marinette thought for a moment. "Hey, I have a bunch of fabric that I haven't gotten around to using. I could get some rope or string and maybe make 1 or 2 more changing areas. Would that help?"

Adrien's eyes lit up. "That would be great."

Marinette ran home and grabbed the fabric pieces that would be big enough for a changing area. She was hunting around for some string when her mom came up. Sabine told Marinette where some thin rope was and even mentioned that Marinette could take a set of bed sheets as long as she made sure they came back at the end of the shoot.

Marinette grabbed all the stuff up, along with some clips, and rushed back to the park. In no time her and a crew member had set up 3 more areas between the trees that the models could change in. It was a little ways from the area they were shooting in, but it was so much better than not having enough changing space.

Marinette also asked if she could help organize the clothes. They didn't need her to help the models get ready but they would appreciate it if she could sort the clothes into the proper outfits according to the master list. She managed to finish that in about half an hour.

She found Adrien and she told him that she needed to get home do some of her homework.

"Thanks, Marinette. Things should go much smoother with the extra changing ares and the sorted clothes." He smiled at her and she melted inside.

Marinette ran off and worked on her homework. He mom called her down for lunch. Tom asked her if she could go back to the shoot and see if everything had been eaten yet. There were to bring another lot of pastries later that afternoon for an afternoon snack time too. He wanted to make sure he would be bring stuff the crew and models had liked.

She ran back to the park and wandered over to the shoot again. She saw Adrien and some models sitting at a small table eating lunch.

"Adrien," she called out and he waved at her to come over. She came up to the table.

"Marinette, this is Claude, Colette, Vivian and Dana. Guys this is Marinette. She's the one who brought the material for the extra changing area and organized the outfits." Adrien pointed to the 2 older teens and adults in order.

Everyone voiced their thanks.

Vivian got up and actually hugged her. "Thank you so much. If it weren't for you Dana over there would be hogging the change room too much."

"Well excuse me if I like to make sure my outfit is completely on before running out." Dana stuck out her tongue playfully.

Claude and Adrien laughed. Colette gently tittered behind a raised hand.

Adrien stood up, "Marinette, do you have time to walk around a bit. I can show you what's going on."

Marinette blushed and nodded.

"Smooth move Agreste." Claude said, "Keep her all to yourself."

Adrien blushed a bit and tried to ignore Claude. He gestured to Marinette to proceed him and he showed her around a little. The truck with the changing area gear had finally made it's way to the park, but since Marinette's solution was up they don't bother to switch it around.

They came across an area where a few of the crew were looking at a portable generator.

"This is the latest hold up on the set." Adrien frowned. "Just before lunch it conked out and we now have an extended lunch until it gets fixed. Or another can be brought over."

"What's it for? Marinette enquired.

"We've got some coloured lights and a wind machine that need to be operable for the next shots. Fake the look of us doing some extreme racing." He explained.

Marinette kept back and looked at the generator. She thought for a moment and hesitantly asked, "Is that a Loncin 1900 DDC?"

One of the crew members looks at the model number and says, "No it's a 4900 DDC."

Marinette thought for a moment, "If you don't mind my advice, Dad had a 1900 DDC for a catering job last year. It would occasionally shut off too. We found that if you unplug everything, pull the start cord all the way out and prime it 3 times before letting the cord back in, it would start up after that."

They talked amongst themselves for a moment and decided it wouldn't hurt to try. They did it and, surprisingly, it worked. The crew thanked her and plugged everything back in to get set up again.

Adrien looked at Marinette with admiration. "Wow Marinette, you're just helping us so much today. It's so lucky that you're nearby to help us out."

Marinette blushed beet red. They wondered around for a bit while the crew got ready. They heard a shout from over where Vivian, Colette, Dana and Claude were. They rushed back.

They got back to see Vivian standing with coffee dripping down part of her cotton sport shirt. Dana had grabbed napkins and was trying to help her clean up. Claude was apologizing profusely, trying to pick up the cups he had knocked over.

Marinette yelled, "Don't rub it Dana. Blot it. Get some vinegar to rinse it off."

The group looked up to see Marinette and Adrien jog up. When they looked doubtful about the vinegar Adrien said, "She's a designer. She works with fabric a lot. She knows some stuff."

Marinette helped Vivian to pull the material away from herself. Colette grabbed fresh napkins and Claude raided the food truck from lunch for a vinegar bottle.

With Marinette and Colette working on the stain it came up pretty easily. As they cleaned Marinette remarked, "This actually works better if you have some dish soap to rub on the spot after you dab up what you can and before you start to rinse with the vinegar."

One of the people managing the clothes came over and helped to dry off the shirt with a towel. After a bit of work the top was deemed fine for the shoot.

Adrien chuckled and said to Marinette, "We are so lucky you've come over today. You've been such a big help around here."

Marinette blushed and stammered a bit under the praise. Adrien was called to the set and he ran off, waving at Marinette as he left.

Marinette took the opportunity to see what had been eaten from her folks pastries and reported back to her dad. Almost everything was gone. She finished her homework and then helped her dad to box up the next lot of food and went with him back to the shoot.

After setting up the table she wandered around again. She managed to catch a crew member as they tripped on a cable. Shooed off some birds before they could cause Adrien some problems. Caught a model as they tripped over a different cable. She also provided extra hands to hold a reflector disc for a shot with Colette.

After the afternoon break was done she helped her dad clean up the table and was about to leave when a voice rang out. "You are not going anywhere!"

She looked up shocked to see the photographer looking at her. She pointed to herself and mouthed, 'Me?'

"Yes you." Vincent said. "We had so many problems when you weren't here and when you showed up, 'Poof', they were gone. You left and we had more problems. You're back and everything is going right again. You are good luck for us. You are not leaving this set until we're done."

Marinette looked at her dad. He chuckled, "Go ahead. Stay if you want to. You would have to come back to get your fabric and our sheets anyway. We'll see you when you're done."

"Thank you Papa!" Marinette hugged her dad and rushed to a spot close to where they were taking the pictures but not too close to be a bother. She was grinning from ear to ear.

During the rest of the afternoon and early evening she chatted with the models and crew. Watched Adrien with a goofy grin on her face. Blushed when Claude teased her about drooling over Agreste instead of him. Vivian and another model also teased her about fan-girling over Adrien.

"We happen to be in the same class at college. That's how I know him." She said, trying to make it sound less than important.

"It's ok little one," Vivian said. "First crushes are always the strongest. I won't say anything more." She patted Marinette on the shoulder.

Adrien wandered over with Claude and Dana, having finished their last shoot of the day.

Vivian turned to Adrien, "Marinette was just telling us that the two of you go to school together."

"We do," nodded Adrien. "We call her our everyday ladybug in class."

Marinette blushed some more.

"Everyday Ladybug?" Vincent had walked over. "No wonder you've bought so much good luck to us today."

Everybody grinned and agreed.

"Anyway, I came over to let you all know we are done for the day. Someone is getting your fabric together for you Marinette." Vincent gestured over to the general area of the changing spaces she had provided.

Adrien asked, "Hey Vincent? Can we get a picture of the models and Marinette together for her?"

"After everyone changes into their regular clothes I see no problem." Vincent agreed.

So after everyone changed they got together for a group shot, for Marinette. Some of the crew snuck in too since they had had fun with Marinette around.

Vincent looked over the few pictures he had taken. "I'll get these printed up for you. I'll give them and a digital copy to Adrien to give to you later this week. Is that ok?"

Marinette nodded and grinned. "Thank you so much. I had a great time today."

Adrien picked up the fabric that someone had dropped off for Marinette. "I'll help you get this home."

Marinette walked beside Adrien as they went back to the bakery. She had no idea what to say so they walked in silence for a moment.

Finally Adrien said, "Thanks for today Marinette. Quite honestly, this was the best photo shoot I've every had. And I think it was because you were there." He blushed a little bit and looked away.

"Thank you." Marinette squeaked.

They walked in silence again until they got to the door of the bakery. Adrien handed over the fabric and said, "Thank you again Marinette. I'm really glad that you're a friend of mine." Their hands touched as she took the fabric from him. They both blushed again.

Adrien nodded and turned to leave, "See you at school on Monday." He waved and walked to the car that was waiting for him.

"Bye," Marinette called and waved back. "See you Monday." She opened the door and went into the bakery.


	14. Day 14 - The Valentine

**Ok, I didn't plan this, but it works so well with the next prompt, I'm making this a 2 parter. Come back later for the second part.**

This time it was going to go right. This time she didn't forget to sign it. This time she would give it to Adrien. .. .. .. or not. She'd signed it. She could give it to him. Maybe. For sure. Later.

"Arugh! Tikki, why is this so hard." Marinette moaned. She banged her head down to her school desk.

Tikki peeped out from Marinette's bag, "Marinette, you've worried about this all night. You re-drew the card four times. you spent 3 afternoons on the wording. The card is absolutely perfect. You even practiced what you were going to say. Just stay calm and everything will be fine."

She had gotten to school 20 minutes early this Valentine's morning. She wanted to give Adrien the Valentine personally. Last year, with Alya's support, she had mailed it to Adrien but couldn't remember if she had signed it or not. When Adrien didn't mentioned it the next day, she presumed that she hadn't signed it at all.

She got up early and got to class so that when he came in she could give it to him. Maybe she got here too early.

Adrien was about to leave for school. He was just fixing his hair. Plagg floated up beside him in the mirror. "Well, think any ladies are going to give you Valentines this year? Wanting any from someone special? Like the bakery girl?

"Plagg, her name is Marinette and she is a very good friend." Adrien put down his brush and motioned for Plagg to get in his school bag. "Marinette's sweet but I don't think she likes me that way. She still has trouble talking to me."

"Maybe it's because she like-likes you?" Plagg slowly floated over to the bag. "Kid, I've been around a long time and some girls get nervous and tongue tied around the boys they like." He settled into the bag.

Adrien picked up the bag and hoisted it over his shoulder. "Even if she does like-likes me, my heart belongs to Ladybug." He started to head outside to the car. "If she does I'll have to break it to her gently. She's a very good friend and I don't want to hurt her." Adrien left for school hoping that Marinette just felt like a friend towards him.

Marinette was still sitting in class and people had started walking in. A bunch of different girls from the school had dropped into the class room and left Valentines on Adrien's desk. Marinette had watched them and with each one she started to doubt herself more.

Alya entered with Nino. "Gurl! What are you doing here this early?"

Marinette groaned, "Well I was going to give Adrien a Valentine, but with all the other ones on his desk now, I'm not too sure."

Alya sat next to her friend. "Did you sign it?"

"Yes." She put her head on the desk again.

Alya looked at Nino and got his attention. She mimed taking the card from Marinette and giving it to him, then him putting it under the other cards on Adrien's part of the desk.

Nino nodded and held up his hand to get the card. Alya grabbed it and before Marinette could protest Nino had shoved it under the pile.

"Nino, Alya. No. Give it back." Marinette was about to lean forward and try to retrieve her card when Adrien walked in.

"Morning everyone." He glanced at the cards on his desk and gave a sigh.

"What's wrong dude?" Nino asked.

"Every Valentine's Day I get tonnes of cards, from tonnes of girls. Of which none of them know me. All they see is the model and the fame. Sometimes I kind of don't like being a celebrity." Adrien gathered the cards and put them in a side pocket of his bag. He'd look through them later.

Behind him Marinette felt a little sad that Adrien couldn't enjoy Valentine's Day. She wanted to reach out to him but didn't know what to say.

The teacher walked in and class began.

During the course of the day Marinette came up with various ways of getting 'The Valentine' back. She could accidentally kick Adrien's bag while being clumsy, spill the contents and grab hers as she helped him pick them all up. She could take his bag while he wasn't paying attention, get her card out and put the bag back. She could have Nino distract Adrien while she set his bag on fire, destroying the card, along with the others, and possibly burning down the school, and then when they found out she started the blaze they'll put her in jail and she'll never get…. She smacked her cheeks. "No, no thinking like that."

She asked Alya to help her get it back. "No. You have been wanting to tell him for a long time girl. The card is in the stack. I'm not helping you get it back."

Eventually Marinette felt that some possible humiliation would be better then Adrien finding out she made him a card. She waited for him after the last class in the locker room.

"Um A-adrien?" she stammered.

Adrien looked up from his locker to see Marinette standing beside him. Her cheeks flushed, her hands twisting together in front of her, and her looking everywhere but him. "Marinette. What can I do for you?"

"Ah ahaa, this morning I was holding a Valentine card I made for someone and I got bumped while sitting at my desk. I thought it fell to the floor but I couldn't find it. I think it may have fallen into the cards that were on your desk. Is it alright if I look through them to get it back?" She tapped her finger tips together and kind of curled into herself as she talked.

"Oh," Adrien was surprised. "Sure, no problem. Just let me search through them and.."

"NO." Marinette shouted. If Adrien saw the card he would know it was for him and not someone else. "I I, ah I kind of don't want you to see who I wrote it too. I'm a little embarrassed about it."

Adrien thought it was strange, but he gathered up all the cards from his bag and held them out to her. "Here you go."

Marinette gently took the pile and sifted through them, found her card and clutched it close to her chest. "Thank you Adrien." She turned and left.

'Well,' thought Adrien, 'she wants to give a card to someone else. It must mean she likes them and not me. I guess I don't have to turn her down.' Somehow the thought made him a little sad. He couldn't figure out if he was sad because she liked someone else, or if it was that she wasn't in like-like with him.

"Plagg?" Adrien looked into his bag, "I should be happy for Marinette. She likes someone other than me. Right?"

The little kwami just shrugged, secretly he knew that this set some thought in Adrien's head that may turn him from Ladybug to Marinette, despite them being the same girl. Maybe now these two dorks would get together.


	15. Day 15 - Love rivals

**Hey all. You know how I said with yesterdays prompt I was making it a 2 parter story. Well, I've unintentionally lied. As I was writing this I looked ahead at the next prompt and the one after that and well... The 4 prompts together actually make for a good story. So, this is now a 4 parter. Enjoy.**

Adrien couldn't let it go. He couldn't understand why he couldn't let it go. It shouldn't bother him at all.

He lay on his back in bed, failing to fall asleep. Plagg had grown tired of his mumblings and had actually curled up in a towel in the bathroom with the door closed.

"She had a card to give to someone else. It wasn't me. I didn't have to turn her down because I love Ladybug." He rolled over on to his right side. "She's my friend so I'm happy that she likes someone else. She just has to ask him out and then I'll know who it is and then it won't bother me any more."

He rolled onto his left side. "Yeah that's it. Once I know who she likes then it won't bother me and I can concentrate on Ladybug."

Adrien drifted off into a fitful sleep. He dreamed of running across the rooftops as Chat Noir with Ladybug. _They were laughing and bantering. It was the middle of the night and Paris never looked more beautiful. As he jumped over a large gap between buildings he glanced below and saw Marinette. She was walking along with a boy about his height. The boy was fuzzy and grey. His hair was grey, his clothes were grey, he was just grey. Chat paused on a roof top. The clear night air brought their voices to him. 'Oh Marinette I love you so,' the boy said. 'I love you too,' Marinette said back. They cuddled together and walked on. Ladybug came back to see what Chat was looking at. 'You're worried about her. Let me help you.'_

_Ladybug swung down and Chat followed. 'Hi Marinette,' she said. 'I haven't seen you with this gentleman before. Who is he?' 'Why he's the love of my life, Ladybug.' Marinette responded. 'What about Adrien?' Ladybug enquired. 'He's a very good friend.' Marinette said._

_The words slowly grew from normal volume to a loud ringing. 'Very good friend. Good friend. Friend. A friend. Just a friend. Just a good friend. Just a very good friend.'_

Adrien woke up in a cold sweat. His heart was pounding fast. He mush have cried out because Plagg came out of the bathroom.

"Adrien?! What's wrong?" In a flash Plagg was in front of Adrien.

"Nothing. Nothing Plagg." Adrien tried to get his breathing under control. "Just a dream."

Plagg floated up to Adrien's face, looked into his eyes and said. "That wasn't just a dream. That was a nightmare. You were groaning, you cried out, 'No, no, no.' Then you screamed. That's when I came in. Tell me."

Adrien wiped his face with the bed sheet trying to get the sweat out of his eyes. "It wasn't a nightmare. I just… it…." Adrien gave up with a sigh, "I dreamt that I was out with Ladybug as Chat. We were running together and I was enjoying myself so much. I saw Marinette with a guy. He was grey. Ladybug dragged me down there and talked to Marinette. Marinette said that I was, Adrien that is, was …. Just a friend."

Plagg floated closer to Adrien and put a paw on his cheek. "Adrien, if that caused enough pain to have you crying out in your sleep then maybe you actually like her as more than a friend." Plagg then pulled back a little, "I told you so! You have a thing for the bakery girl!" Plagg started darting around and laughing.

"Plagg, stop it. I don't. She's a friend." Adrien tried to ignore the laughing kwami. "Shut up. Shut it! Plagg!"

"You like her! You like her!" Plagg kept darting around. "**She's a friend**." Plagg mocked, laughing harder.

Adrien threw his pillow at the annoying little black cat. Hitting him and knocking him to the floor. Adrien heard Plagg's laughter through the pillow and grunted in annoyance. He pulled the covers over his head and tried to get a little more sleep before the sun rose.

—–

Marinette was outside the school. She was trying to hide behind a bush.

"Marinette," Tikki opened Marinette's purse to look at her charge. "You have to go in sometime."

"No I don't. I can stay out here and live off the berries I find in the bushes." She mumbled.

Tikki floated up in front of Marinette. "You have nothing to hide. So you asked for a card back. That's nothing to be ashamed about. Nothing to worry about."

"But Tikki," Marinette groaned. "Now Adrien is going to think that I like someone else. How can I ever confess that I love him if he thinks I like someone else?"

Tikki landed on Marinette's drawn up knee. "You don't have to say anything. Wait a while and then he might forget. And then if he ever does ask you about it, you can just say that it didn't work out."

"I can't. I can't ever say I love him to Adrien. He already thinks of me as a friend and he's probable happy that I have someone I like." Marinette sighed and patted Tikki on the head. She stood up and Tikki flew back into the purse. "I'll just have to pretend there is someone I like and not talk about them and maybe just pretend that they've moved on and we broke up or something."

Tikki looked sad. She wished there was something she could do or say to make Marinette feel better.

Marinette sighed again. "Guess I have to go find Alya and let he know what happened. I can't have her trying to get me together with Adrien if I 'like' someone else." She walked off to find her best friend and try to explain it all.

—–

Adrien was sitting in class chatting with Nino when Marinette and Alya walked in. Alya had her arm around Marinette and they were chatting quietly together. Marinette looked so sad. Did her guy turn her down, Adrien wondered.

Alya glanced up and caught Adrien's attention and gave him the dirtiest look. He flinched and sat up straighter.

Alya and Marinette sat down, Alya giving Marinette a pat on the shoulder and Marinette nodding dejectedly.

Nino leaned over towards Marinette, "Dude, are you ok? What's wrong?"

Marinette unpacked her school bag and said, "It's nothing Nino. Don't worry."

Adrien couldn't help himself. "Are you sure Marinette?"

Marinette kind of froze for a moment, "I-it's fine Adrien. No thing, nothing wrong. Don't worry." She stuttered.

"Yeah, just girl stuff Adrien." Alya interjected. "Don't worry your pretty little head about it."

Again Adrien could swear that Alya was sending nasty thoughts towards him, boding ill intent.

The teacher came in and class soon started.

After first period was over, Adrien managed to get a moment with Marinette alone while Nino and Alya talked on the way to the next class. "Marinette, I can't help but think that this is about the card situation yesterday. Did the guy turn you down?"

Marinette blushed and muttered, "I n-never even gave it to him."

Adrien turned to her, "Why not? I couldn't see it well but it looked nice. Why didn't you give it to him?"

"I just couldn't." She blushed more and tried to walk faster.

Adrien felt… he didn't know what he felt. He wanted to support her because she was a good friend but, it bothered him that she liked someone else. There was no way he liked her because he was in love with Ladybug so he should be happy that she liked someone other than him. He decided to support her as a friend even if it didn't sit quite right.

Adrien caught up with Marinette. "You should give it to him today. I know Valentines was yesterday but you could still give it today. Tell him it got miss-placed. If he turns you down then he doesn't know what a kind and sweet girl he's missing out on and doesn't deserve you. But you should give it to him."

Marinette suddenly stood stock still. Her face had a look of shock on it.

Adrien waved his hand in front of her face. "Marinette?"

Alya and Nino walked up. Alya wondered, "What did you do Adrien?"

"Nothing. I just told her that she should still give that card to the guy she made it for." He shrugged his shoulders, totally lost at what had happened.

"Oh, mon dieu." Alya groaned.

Marinette seemed to suddenly snap out of whatever trance she was in. "You're right Adrien. I'll, I'll go get the card and give it to him today." She suddenly ran off leaving the others standing with various expressions of shock.

Alya lightly smacked Adrien's arm.

"What?!" he cried out.

Alya just rolled her eyes and went after Marinette.

—–

Adrien kept an eye on Marinette all day, trying to see who she might give the card too. He tried to be inconspicuous, and managed it for most of the time. Alya noticed it twice but never said anything.

Plagg noticed it a lot. While they were alone in the locker room after the last class he popped up out of the bag. "What is with you today? You keep looking at the bakery girl."

Adrien put his homework in the bag. "Her name is Marinette. And I was not looking at her. I just wanted to see who she gave the card too."

Plagg's jaw dropped. "You wanted to see who she gave…" The tiny black cat started to laugh.

Adrien grabbed Plagg to try and keep him quite.

"You, ha ha, you wanted to see who Marinette likes?"

Adrien tried to shush Plagg, "It's not like that. I just wanted to make sure that whoever she gave it to didn't hurt her feelings"

Plagg stopped laughing and narrowed his eyes at Adrien. A slow grin spread across his face. "You wanted to see who your love rival was."

"What?!" Adrien dropped the tiny cat.

"You wanted to make sure her feelings weren't hurt. You care about her. She is more than a friend to you. You wanted to see who was competing with you for Marinette's feelings." The kwami started to shake, holding in his laughter.

All Adrien could do was stand there in shock, staring at his locker.


	16. Day 16 - Beach

**Hello all, here is part 3 of the surprise 4 parter from me. Enjoy! PS there aren't many beaches in France that are close to Paris! and one with hot enough weather?! Found it! And just to note, the whole story actually takes place after season 2 and before 3. No Weredad, no Camelon.**

It was 2 weeks after Valentines Day and the class was on a full day trip to Rambouillet to spend time at the beach there. It was part biology class and part fun. They had gotten on the bus at 7am for the hour long trip. A lot of the students tried to get some more sleep which was fine by Adrien. He needed time alone with his thoughts after his talk with Ladybug last night.

There had been an akuma attack yesterday morning and to say at best he had been distracted and Ladybug had noticed. She had suggested meeting up that night on the Eiffel Tower to talk about it.

Ladybug had noticed that Chat seemed distracted at the beginning of the past 2 attacks.

Chat had told her that it was just minor problems in his civilian life, nothing to worry about.

Ladybug asked him to talk about it. She didn't want him to get too distracted in battle and end up getting hurt.

Chat eventually told Ladybug that while he still cared for her, he was starting to have possible feelings toward another girl. He was just trying to work out if he actually liked her or if he was just worried about her as she was going through some problems herself.

Ladybug encouraged him to think about the girl. While he is her partner and friend and she considers him a very special person in her life, with the threat of Hawk Moth still out there they really couldn't develop a relationship beyond the masks.

Chat ended up agreeing and said that he'd think on his feelings and see if he really liked this girl or not.

Adrien hadn't mentioned to Ladybug that the girl he might like, liked someone else. That was part of what was confusing him now. He had watched Marinette and despite her saying she was going to give the Valentine card to the guy she liked, he hadn't seen her paying attention to anyone.

Two things he had noticed was that one, she was stuttering a lot less around him and two, she seemed sad at times. Maybe on the trip today he would have a chance to find out if she had talked to the guy yet.

—–

Marinette and Alya had switched into their bathing suits and were standing together waiting for the rest of the class to change so the teacher could give their tasks for the trip.

"This is the most messed up situation you've ever gotten yourself into Mari." Alya shook her head and crossed her arms.

"It's not my fault. If you hadn't taken my card then I wouldn't have had to get it back and Adrien wouldn't think there is some other boy I like." Marinette huffed and crossed her own arms.

Exasperated Alya threw her arms in the air and then put her hands on her hips. "You didn't have to get the card back at all. That was why I didn't help you get it. Adrien had it and he would have read it, and would have thought it was sweet and he would have talked to you. At least to thank you."

"Alya, did you not hear him after he came in. Getting cards like that only made him sad. Having them on the desk only made him think that the girls liked him superficially. Like they couldn't be bothered to give it to him directly. If I had been able to 'give' it to him," Marinette pointedly stared at Alya before continuing. "Then he would have know it was coming from me personally and would have meant more to him. Just having it on his desk would have been impersonal and not meant as much."

"Ouch," Alya looked crestfallen, "My bad. I'm sorry I didn't think of that."

Marinette looked at her. "It's fine," she sighed.

"Well," Alya brightened. "There is nothing to stop you from saying that things didn't work out, or he turned you down. It's like you have turned off a faucet and aren't even trying with Adrien any more."

Marinette hung her head, "He deserves to be more then the 'rebound'."

"But he wouldn't be. He's the 'ever since the beginning' guy." Alya argued back. "And there is no other guy."

"But look at it this way," Marinette started pointing out on her fingers, "Right now Adrien thinks I like some other guy. Last week he had asked me if I've talked to the guy yet. If he asks again then there is three things I can say."

"If I say that I couldn't ask out the other guy then I can't ask out Adrien because I haven't resolved my feelings for the other guy."

"I could say that we are now going out and then we 'break up' later. If I ask out Adrien after that, then he's the rebound guy."

"If I say he didn't like me back, then later I ask out Adrien, Adrien becomes the second choice guy."

"In any of the cases if Adrien finds out that I've liked him from the beginning then; I have liked Adrien, fallen for another guy and moved on from Adrien, had problems with the other guy, and then gone back to Adrien. That looks like I'm fickle and who wants to date someone fickle."

Alya grunted. "All right, those are good points." She put an arm around Marinette, "What are you going to do? If the sunshine child had just noticed you sooner, all of this would be moot. I think you should pretend that he didn't like you back. This way you have the heartbreak now, you can start on getting over him now, and who knows, maybe Adrien tries to cheer you up and he falls for you. Then Adrien can't be the rebound guy."

Marinette sighed and agreed, "It might be the better idea of pretending he turned me down. However I don't think Adrien would fall in love with me trying to cheer me up. After a few months I can act like I'm over it and if Adrien is available then maybe I'll 'start' crushing on him, again. Then we're back to where we were before Valentine's Day. Me liking him and him oblivious to me."

—–

The boys arrived on the beach after changing. Nino was in lose blue boxer style swim shorts and an orange t-shirt and Adrien was in a pair of dark green swim shorts with a white button up hanging totally open. They looked around for the girls. They saw them over by the rest of the class.

Nino took a moment to admire Alya in a simple orange and white swimsuit that was cut high on the thighs. It covered her front completely but showed off a good portion of her back.

Adrien looked at Marinette. Her swimsuit was a solid black suit that had a deep cut in the front on her chest but wasn't so low that it look like she was showing off. The back showed off her shoulder blades but the rest of her back was covered down to her gracefully curved bottom. It covered more of Marinette than he'd seen on some female models but to him is seemed more alluring then other two piece suits he's seen.

"Dude, pick your jaw up off the floor. You're gonna eat sand like that." Nino nudged him.

"What?"

Nino laughed. "You keep looking at Marinette like that and she's gonna think you like her."

Adrien blushed and rubbed one arm, "She likes someone else Nino. She's, she's just a friend."

Nino shook his head. He playfully punched Adrien and gestured him to follow. "Come on, we gotta get to the rest of the class." Nino had heard about Marinette pretending that she liked someone else to get the card back. He thought the whole thing was silly.

They jogged over to the class and the teacher gave out some papers. "Alright, everyone in groups of two please. You are to answer the questions on the paper. There are samples for you to collect, drawings for you to make and notes for you to take. There are envelopes for you to put your samples in and bottles for the water observations over there. This should take you a couple of hours. After you are done you can have lunch. Then we will meet at 12:30pm for a talk and then your are free until dinner at 4pm. Dinner will be set up over by the changing rooms that were set up for us. This is the first time this type of excursion has been organized by the school so after dinner there will be a short paper survey we would like you to do. Based on the answers of your assignment and the survey we will see if this gets to be an annual thing. Go, be back here by 12:30pm."

Nino glanced at Adrien and made a 'wanna be partners' motion. Adrien nodded. Nino then looked at Alya, "Hey I know we are supposed to be teams of two but you girls wanna hang out with us and the 4 of us work together?"

"Sorry Nino, we girls are going to stick together. We want to make sure our observations are correct." She gave Adrien a look as she stressed the part 'observations are correct', and Adrien wondered what he had done to earn her ire again.

Alya took Marinette by the shoulders and proceeded to the water bottles and envelopes. The boys heard hushed talking but couldn't make out much until Alya said, 'I can hold it against him if he's too dense to see it' before Marinette made a shushing noise and looked over her shoulder at the guys.

"Nino," Adrien said with a confused look on his face, "I get the feeling that I'm missing something." Nino just laughed.

—–

The day went well after that. Every one finished the sheet of work, some with better answers than others. Lunch was enjoyed by all. And sitting through the mini lecture about the importance of ecosystems, using the beach as an example, allowed everyone to have time to let their stomachs settle before going to play in the water. While it wasn't that hot out it was warm enough to make being at the beach enjoyable.

As he had the past two weeks Adrien covertly watched Marinette. As far as he could tell she still hadn't asked out the guy since he asked her about it a week ago. He tried to see if she might be interested in anyone here today.

He was finding it very annoying that he still didn't know who Marinette liked. Half way trough the afternoon he made another trip to his bag so he could feed Plagg.

Plagg looked up from the bag as Adrien gave him another piece of Camembert from a wheel that was being kept in a different bag so the little cat couldn't scarf it all down in one go. "How's it going?" Plagg smirked.

Plagg fully knew what was going on now. He had found out Tikki was here and they had a short talk about what their charges were doing. (ie being stupid about the situation.) He found the whole thing hilarious and promised Tikki that he wouldn't tell Adrien a thing about the card being for him and Marinette just pretending to like another boy to get it back.

"Not good." Adrien signed and sat on his heels. "I can't tell who she likes. She hasn't paid any obvious attention to anyone that I can see. It's just so annoying." Adrien raked his fingers through his wet hair.

"Maybe it's bothering you because you like her and want to date her yourself." Plagg floated up from the bag to look Adrien in the face.

"Plagg," Adrien gently pushed him back into the bag. "She's just a friend. I don't, I don't like her like that. I'm just worried that she will get hurt if this unknown guy turns her down badly. Once I know who the guy is, it will be fine."

"Sure." The tiny black cat chuckled to himself and finished off the cheese as Adrien ran back to the beach.


	17. Day 17 - Confession

**…. Trying to get Adrien to do exactly what I want him to do, when I want him to do it, is like trying to herd cats. … .****_ /me throws hands in the air _****\- Tune in Tomorrow for part 5! ****_/me wanders off grumbling_**

Just before dinner at the beach Adrien had asked Marinette if she had told the guy she liked about her feelings yet. She had said that she had talked to him and he wasn't interested in her like that. She was a little sad but she'd get over it soon, after all it's not like they dated. Alya had soon come over with Nino and the 4 of them went to dinner. On the trip home he managed to get into the washroom on the back of the bus with Plagg.

Plagg took the cheese Adrien offered him. "What's up? Something happen? She finally talk with the 'guy' and they are going on a date?"

Adrien said dejectedly, "He turned her down."

"What?" It was one of the scenarios that Tikki had told Plagg about, but he though Marinette was leaning towards putting it off for a couple of months.

"Yeah. She looked so sad when she said it. What kind of idiot would turn down someone as sweet and considerate and caring as Marinette?" Adrien washed his hands as he pondered it.

Plagg almost choked on his cheese. Technically Adrien hadn't turned her down but his obliviousness did make him a kind of an idiot.

"Right now Plagg, she needs a friend. Someone to cheer her up and help her get over it. I know Alya will do that but I can always try cheering her up myself." Adrien dried his hands and motioned for Plagg to get back in his pocket.

—–

The following 2 weeks had been eventful for Marinette. She had been genuinely upset over what was going on and Alya had tried to cheer her up. It turns out Adrien decided to cheer her up as well. While she enjoyed the attention Adrien was giving her she worried that it had been for all the wrong reasons.

"Alya," she said when they were having a girls night, "I don't think I can do this any more."

Alya sat down besides Marinette in her jammies. "What's wrong?"

"I feel like I'm lying to Adrien." She bent over and hugged herself. "He's been so sweet and kind and he's done so much to try and cheer me up."

"What's wrong with that?" Alya put her arm around Marinette. "So he's trying to cheer you up. He knew that you were sad right?" Marinette nodded. "He does care for you like he cares for all his friends. Has he tried to ask you on a date?"

Marinette shook her head.

"Has he said he's interested in you as more than a friend?"

Marinette shook her head.

"Has he bought you lavish gifts and showered you with jewellery?"

"Now you're being silly Alya." Marinette raised her head up.

"But what I'm saying is that he's just trying to cheer up a sad friend. What's wrong with that?" She rubbed Marinette's shoulder.

"Oh Alya," Marinette turned and hugged her best friend. "I didn't expect him to try and cheer me up. I thought he would go back to saying the occasional good morning to me and only hanging out with us as a group. While he has been hanging out with Nino and us he has also spent a couple of lunches with me. He's walked me home after school and we've been texting on occasion. And through all that I'm trying to not show that I'm in love with him. It would have been so much easier if he had remained oblivious to me."

Alya patted Marinette on the head and tried to comfort her as best she could. Her friend had gone from trying to tell Adrien how she feels to hiding how she feels. She didn't know what to do.

—–

Adrien had managed to have a guys evening with Nino. He told Nathalie that he had project to work on with Nino and asked if he could spend the afternoon and evening working on it at Nino's place. Nathalie had ok'ed with his father. He wasn't to stay too late and he had to call for Gorilla to pick him up.

They did have some work to do together, and after 20 minutes it was done. On to some games! They sat together and played some Ultimate Mecha Strike III. After a few rounds they switched to a racing game. They bantered and joked the whole time.

After a couple of hours of games Nino's mom brought in some snacks and drinks. Some chips and sweets.

They took a break and talked.

"I am so glad you got your father to agree to this dude." Nino grabbed another handful of chips.

Adrien finished the pastry he had taken. "So am I. I just wish I could sleep over. Then we could stay up late and gossip ."

"Dude, guys don't gossip during a sleep over. We tell jokes and stories all night. Gossiping is probably what Marinette and Alya are doing now." Nino took a drink of water.

"The girls are having a sleep over?" Adrien was surprised. "How do you know?"

"Alya told me."

Adrien thought this might be a good chance to find out what Nino knew about the boy that turned Marinette down. After all Nino did have more time to hang out with the girls than he did. "Do you think the girls are talking about that guy Marinette asked out. The one she made the Valentine for? That guys she hasn't introduced to any of us."

Nino should have shut up, "Guy? What guy? Marinette hasn't been interest in some other guy." Nino slapped his hands over his mouth.

Adrien dropped the handful of chips he had just taken. "What? No other…"

"OH, oh, THAT GUY. The one she made a card for. Him. Well umm …" Nino desperately tired to backpedal.

Adrien gave Nino his full attention and tried to stare him down. "There wasn't another guy?"

"Alya's gonna kill me!" Nino moaned and tried to cover his head. He rolled into a ball, trying to hide from Adrien's glare.

"There never was someone else she wanted to give a Valentine card to. It was for me." Adrien didn't sound too mad. He actually started to sound more in awe.

Nino risked a look. "She was planning on giving it to you, if that helps."

Adrien sighed, "Alya happened?"

Nino sat up. "Uh, yeah. She probably thought Marinette would chicken out again so she took the card from Marinette and had me put it in the pile on your desk."

Adrien groaned and leaned back on the couch, "But why would she ask for it back if she was just going to give it to me anyway." He rubbed his temple.

"Do you remember what you said when you came in and saw all those cards? You were sad that the girls who would give you those cards couldn't see past your looks and your fame. Alya mentioned that Marinette thought you might not think hers was personal if she didn't actually give it to you." Nino explained.

Adrien sat up, "I saw part of it when she took it back. It looked like she actually drew the card. There was no way I'd think that impersonal when all the others are store bought."

"Ah man." Nino slumped back. Adrien slumped too.

After a few minutes something occurred to Nino. "Hey Adrien?"

The blonde grunted.

"Have you been trying to cheer up Marinette the past couple of weeks?"

Adrien looked at Nino. "Umm. yeah. I had asked Marinette if she had finally asked that guy out. She told me he turned her down. I thought I'd be a good friend and try to help her get over that guy."

"And before that. You were acting weird. You kept checking her out. Watching her. What was that about?" Nino leaned forward, resting his arms on his legs.

Adrien shrugged. "When she asked for the card back she mentioned wanting to give it to someone. I then noticed she was sad the next day. So I asked her how she was, did he turn her down. She said she hadn't given it to him. I told her she should give it to him and talk."

Nino thought for a moment. "That doesn't explain all the watching for the next few weeks."

"Ah, well, yeah…" Adrien looked sheepish and rubbed the back of his neck. "I kind of, wanted to know who she gave it to. Who she was interested in. You know, make sure he was a good guy and wouldn't hurt her."

Nino raised an eyebrow.

"Ok, for some reason I really, really needed to know who this guys was. I didn't want to see Marinette with some boy who might hurt her feelings down the road. I was trying to see if she paid any special attention to anyone." Adrien had stood up and started pacing. "If I could figure out who she liked then I could make sure he would do right by her."

Nino gave a heavy sigh. Stood up. And walked over to Adrien, grabbing him by the shoulders to stop him pacing.

Adrien looked at the exasperated expression on Nino's face. "W-what?" He stammered.

Nino slightly shook his head. "Dude, you like her. You are totally into Marinette."

Adrien pulled away and crossed his arms. "No I'm not. She's just a friend. A good friend I care about and don't want to see hurt. A very good friend."

"Dude," Nino chuckled. "You are. 'A very good friend'." Nino mocked (just like Plagg had). "You are in so much denial, I might think we're in Egypt. You just told me how much it bothered you that you didn't know who she liked. You 'really, really needed to know' who he was. You said you were worried about the guy hurting her. You wanted to make sure he was right for her. You care that much about her being happy."

Nino went and sat back down on the couch as his friend stood there. He grabbed another cookie and ate it while the blonde stewed.

"Ah, dieu. I do like Marinette like that."


	18. Day 18 - In the rain

**Well…. the cats are finally herded. Unfortunately this was quite the delay for me. Here it finally is, part 5 of the 2 parter. :( Enjoy!**

Adrien and Nino started planning on what Adrien should do now that he realized that he liked Marinette.

Adrien was all for telling Marinette that he knew about there not being another boy and having spent all this time with her he realizes that he likes her and would like to get to know her better.

Nino took off his cap and smacked Adrien lightly on the head with it. "No. Bad Adrien, bad. If you tell her any of that you are going to freak her out."

"But I want to be honest with her." Adrien was rubbing his head.

"There is honesty and there is non-useful information. You tell Marinette you know there was no other guy, she's gonna starting thinking about how you might think she was lying to you. Alya tells me all about how she can over think things and get carried away." Nino stood up and started pacing with his hands clasped behind his back.

"You want to take things slow. You come on too strong and she will freak. It doesn't matter that there was no guy, it only matters that when you started cheering her up, you realized that you like her as more than a friend now." He looked at Adrien with a hand on his chin.

"I think she has liked you for quite a while. At least a year, I remember Alya telling me about how Marinette was going to make sure she didn't mess it up this year. Possibly meaning she had a card for you last and never sent it." Nino paused for a moment, "Time. That is what you need. I know you won't like this but I think you need more time just getting closer to her. She's possibly liked you for a year or more. If you take another couple of week or maybe a month of hanging out with her, just you and her, she might not freak out when you ask her on a 'proper date'."

"This should also give her more time to 'get over' the other boy."

Adrien stood up and bowed towards Nino, "Since when did you get so wise about romance, oh love guru. I remember a long while ago you wanting my help with asking Marinette out yourself."

Nino chuckled, "Alya. She is a whole lot of loving. Ya learn stuff to keep your girlfriend happy."

They sat down and over snacks they formulated a plan that would have Adrien asking Marinette out in 4 weeks. Then they played more games in celebration until Adrien had to leave.

The following school week was incredibly agonizing for Marinette. By the weekend she was almost ready to lose her mind.

"Tikki, am I loosing my mind? Was Adrien paying me a lot of attention this week?" Marinette looked at the little kwami who was munching cookies on the desk.

"I think so. I think he's spent more time with you this week than last week." Tikki finished her cookie and floated up to Marinette.

"Oh, this is not good." Marinette groaned. "Adrien's been getting closer to me because of a lie Tikki. That's not a good foundation for anything."

Tikki tried to console her chosen. "Marinette, you got sad because you thought you would have to give up on your feelings for Adrien. He noticed you were sad. It doesn't matter why you were sad, just that he wanted you to be happy and so he is trying to cheer you up."

"I wouldn't have been sad if I had been able to give Adrien the card instead of Alya taking it and me getting so embarrassed it was with all those other cards that I had to ask for it back." Marinette argued back, "I could have left it there. I could have let Adrien see it amongst all the others and he either would have read it or just ignored the whole lot. I made myself sad and now Adrien's paying attention to me because of that."

"Marinette," Tikki crossed her arms. "Adrien didn't start liking you the moment you asked for the card back. He didn't start liking you when you told him there was another boy. He didn't start liking you when you told the 'lie' that the boy didn't like you back. Adrien's just been paying you more attention. You can't be sure that he like you that way right now. And If he does, then he's probably grown into it."

Marinette thought about that, "Umm, ok. There is a chance he still just likes me as a friend and not romantically."

"That's right Marinette," Tikki hugged Marinette's face. "For now, just be his friend and if it changes later, then you can worry about it."

"Thanks Tikki," Marinette hugged her kwami back. Ready to try and face the next day she'd be at school.

It was Tuesday and Adrien had some time in his schedule. He had cleared it with Nathalie that morning so he could go help Marinette study for science class. He knew she was having trouble in it so it was a good reason to spend time with her and not Nino and Alya.

When he went home for lunch he was surprised by his father wanting to speak with him. He went the study.

"You asked to see me father?" Adrien said as he stepped into the room.

With out looking up from his tablet Gabriel said. "Nathalie has informed me that you wish to use some of you time to help a female friend study."

"Yes father. She's having trouble in science and I thought I could help her." He nodded.

"Who is this girl?" Gabriel intoned.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng." Adrien answered.

His father's fingers stilled on the tablet and he raised his eyes to make contact with Adrien.

"She is the girl that designed the feather bowler that won in the contest last year?"

"Yes she is." Adrien nodded.

Gabriel paused a moment, then looked back down at his tablet and started typing again. "I would prefer you come back home for dinner but if she needs extra help please let Nathalie know you will be staying there. Do not be late."

Adrien was surprised. "Thank you father." He didn't know how to take it, but his father was letting him go over to Marinette's and even stay later if needed. He was not going to argue or even question it.

Rain had started just after lunch. It made the rest of the afternoon seem grey. Marinette had been surprised when near the end of physics class Adrien had come over and said that he had noticed her having trouble with what the teacher was explaining. Would she like some help? He had a rare free afternoon and could go over to her place to explain whatever she was having problems with if she was interested?

She had said yes and now it was after school and they were heading out to her place above the bakery. Their umbrellas kept knocking into each other as they started walking.

"I have an idea," Adrien said. "My umbrella is bigger so we can both get under it and it will be easier to walk."

Marinette blushed and slid underneath Adrien's umbrella, closing her own and putting it away as she did so. After walking a little more they kept bumping hips. Adrien changed the hand holding the umbrella and said, "Can I put my arm around you so we're walking more comfortably?"

Shocked Marinette could only look at her shoes and nod. Adrien slid his arm around her waist and they headed off towards the crosswalk. There weren't many people walking but they had to wait for traffic. As they stood there Adrien squeezed Marinette to him without realizing it.

Marinette's heart couldn't take it. "Adrien!" She almost yelled as she pulled herself out from his arm and turned to face him. "I lied!" She kind of moved out from under the umbrella but the rain made her get back under.

Adrien wondered what was going on, "What? What did you lie about?" He started to panic.

Marinette screwed up her courage and started, "There never was another boy. I made the Valentine for you and I was planing to give it to you and to tell you how I feel about you. But Alya grabbed the card from me and it got put into the pile of all the other Valentines that you got and you were sad that so many girls would give you cards without really knowing you. I got embarrassed and didn't want you to see my card in the same light so I asked for it back and said there was some other guy that I wanted to give it to and you were so keen on knowing how it went and I couldn't tell you about it. So I faked not being able to give it to him and then you encouraged me to give it to him, but it was actually for you, and I couldn't give it to you."

Marinette ignored the little slap sound that came from her purse and continued. "So I just kept it and after a bit you still seemed interested in if I had given it so I said that he turned me down and then you started trying to cheer me up and get over the guy. When really I was not feeling great because I felt like I wouldn't be able to ask you out or tell you how I really feel because you thought I liked some guy, and all this attention is messing up my thinking because I really would like to hang out with you, but not because you feel sorry for me getting turned down by a non-existent boy. And we shouldn't be friends based on a ..."

Adrien couldn't help it. He burst out laughing. The merry and full sound finally made it's way into Marinette's thoughts and she stopped babbling to look at him. "Hey this is not funny" She stomped her foot.

"I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing at the situation." He put his free hand on Marinette's waist to pull her closer. Thunder rumbled and a small flash of lighting went off somewhere. "Out here in the rain was not the best place to tell me all that."

"oh." Marinette shyly looked at her hands and blushed.

"I rather say this somewhere out of the rain but I should tell you. I know there was no 'other boy'. Don't ask exactly how I found out. It's a little embarrassing. Let's just say Nino noticed something and helped me see something."

Adrien looked down lovingly at Marinette and moved his had from her waist to her chin. Slowly tilting her face to look up at him. "When I thought that you were sad about not having the courage to give the 'other' boy your Valentine, it bothered me. I didn't like seeing you sad. I wanted to see you happy. So I urged you to talk to the boy hoping that would make you happy. Then later when you said he turned you down, that kind of hurt me. It bothered me more than you not being able to talk to that boy. I couldn't figure out what I was feeling, but I just knew that I wanted you to be happy. So I tried to cheer you up. And," Adrien paused to rub the back of his neck, "Some-when, while trying to help you get over the guy, I kind of, started to like you. A lot."

Marinette's eyes shimmered with unshed tears and emotions she couldn't place. "You like me?" She whispered.

"Mm hm." Adrien nodded, placing his hand back on Marinette waist. "I do."

Marinette tentatively placed her hands on Adrien's chest and moved closer, shyly tucking her head under his. Adrien moved his hand around her back and pulled her close. They stood that way for a moment. Thunder pealed and a crack of lighting startled them both.

They laughed at the shocked looks on each others faces.

"Ok, shall we continue to my home?" Marinette asked, pulling back and turning towards the bakery.

"Yes we shall." Adrien offered her his arm, and she took it. "I did mean what I said about helping you with physics. Father actually said that I could stay later and help you more if needed. Maybe we can use that time to get to know each other better?"

"Yeah," Marinette said. "Wait, you mean you could stay for dinner if you wanted? You father approves that?" She blushed from the roots of her hair to halfway down her neck. Her parents were going to want to talk to Adrien and she wasn't sure how that would go.

Adrien laughed again, "I don't have to if I would be imposing. We can just do the homework and studying."

"Mmmum," Marinette shook her head. "If the studying gets even close to dinner time my parents will want to talk to you."

It was Adrien's turn to blush a bit. He did not realize that going over to her house might mean her parents wanting to talk to him. "Well, umm, I guess, we'll just have to see how the studying goes and see what happens after that." He smiled down at her.

The lights changed in their favour (once again) and they started off. Studying, pastries and possibly dinner were in their future right now and they'd take it one step at a time.


	19. Day 19 - Akumatized

Lila was mad. She had been trying to subtly convince Marinette's friends that she wasn't all that good. That Marinette was trying to make her look bad. That she was secretly mean. While the class readily believed the lies Lila told to make herself look good or more important, they had trouble fully believing the 'Marinette Bad' stuff Lila was saying. Especially when Marinette would usually come in the room and help someone in a non-related way. They all just thought that Marinette was possibly jealous of her and Adrien, not that she was bad in general.

Lila was getting pissed about it. She was actually waiting for Hawk Moth to akumatize her again so she could do some damage to Ladybug and then say it was Marinette's fault that she was akumatized.

That day finally came. Lila felt filled with righteous anger when another of her 'Marinette treats me bad when I'm just trying to be nice' plans failed. Marinette had actually brought in Lila's school bag and had gently placed it in front of her. "You left this behind in last class." While it wasn't her being 'extremely nice' it did show that Marinette didn't outright hate Lila. Because if Marinette was as bad as Lila said, then she wouldn't have brought the bag. The class was a little confused about it.

Later Lila was seething and stomping up and down an empty hall. She stopped and raised a fist to the sky. "Come on Hawk Moth. Isn't this enough anger for you!" She paused and listened.

After a few moments there came a faint sound of wings beating in the quite hallway. She looked over her shoulder and there was a little black butterfly coming towards her. She held out her wrist, which had a bracelet on it, for the akuma to fly into.

Before the akuma touched her though, Lila found herself knocked back to the floor, tackled by Marinette.

"Lila, get away. I'll distract the butterfly." Marinette yelled as she got up for the floor and turned to face the akuma.

"No!" Lila shouted, "I won't let you do that." She stood up and tried to push Marinette out of the way. "You won't stop me."

"Lila run!" Marinette said. She hoped the girl wouldn't notice as she took off her earrings and put them in her purse. She was trying to bat away the akuma, force Lila down the hall at the same time. "Stop being stubborn and move it."

Just then Adrien and a few other kids arrived at the end of the hallway unnoticed by either girl.

"That akuma is coming for me." Lila said, trying to stop Marinette from pushing her out of the way.

"That's why you have to run. I'll try and distract it or catch it and hold it until Ladybug gets here. You go, save yourself." Marinette tried once more to push Lila down the hall away from the akuma.

Adrien yelled, "Run Lila! Marinette don't let it touch you."

Both girls looked at Adrien and the others. With an audience Lila decided to try something bold, "See, she's been so mean to me that I'm about to be akumatized."

Adrien started to walk down the hall, "All I see is that Marinette is trying to save you from becoming akumatized. Now run! She can't keep batting at it with just her hands."

Marinette took off her purse and threw it towards Adrien, it landed on the ground at his feet. She then lunged at the butterfly, trying to pinch it's wings. The akuma kept out of her reach and tried to get to Lila.

Adrien was slowly getting closer. He was going to try and grab Lila since she seems too stubborn to get out of the way. Everyone else watched on in mixed horror and confusion.

Lila realized that she should be trying to get away from the akuma. So she finally started to move back.

Marinette remembered that she had her charm from Adrien in her pocket. She pulled it out and threw it at the akuma. The akuma was absorbed in the charm. Marinette fell to her knees.

Adrien dashed to Marinette and held her shoulders. "Marinette, Marinette! Look at me! Don't give in! Don't let Hawk Moth take control!"

The two of them knelt in front of each other. Marinette staring blankly with a purple butterfly outline around her eyes. Adrien looking scared and tears forming at the corners of his eyes.

Marinette started to 'talk' to Hawk Moth, "Yes they have not been believing the truth I've tried to tell them.. Yes I have a little proof for some of it, but they all think I'm just jealous."

"Marinette, don't believe him." Adrien tried to look into her eyes but they just looked through him. "This won't help, it won't work. Don't give in, come back." Adrien pleaded.

The kids at the end of the hall listened in. Never before had they see someone getting akumatized.

Lila had moved around to stand behind them. This was not going well. She had to save face so she said, "Don't give in Marinette, fight it!"

"No Hawk Moth, forcing the truth on others won't work. If the truth is forced on them they won't really believe it." Marinette paused and listened to Hawk Moth. "Forcing someone else to tell the truth won't work either. How can others believe that what someone is forced to say is actually the truth." Marinette screamed in pain, her body started to shake.

"Marinette, what's going on?" Adrien held her shoulders tighter, trying to stop the shaking.

"He's hurting me. He want's me to give in." Tears formed in Marinette eye's, "Adrien help me!" she cried.

Adrien hugged Marinette pulling her as close as he could. He placed his head on top of hers and held her tight. "I'm here Marinette. I'm here. I've got your back. I believe you. I believe in you."

Suddenly Marinette stopped shaking. The outline flickered. "Adrien? Hawk Moth stopped. Something happened."

Adrien pulled back a little and looked deep into her eyes. "Now is your chance. Fight him. Force him out. You can do it." He held her tight again. "I believe in you."

Marinette's arms came up and hugged Adrien. "I won't, I won't give into you Hawk Moth. I have friends who believe in me. I don't need you! I won't give in! YOU GET OUT OF MY HEAD! I"M NOT GIVING IN TO YOU!"

From the charm lying on the floor there was a bright light. Everyone turned and stared at it. It glowed and the charm shook. Suddenly there was a sound and the butterfly emerged from the charm and floated above it, still black and shimmering. The light from the charm faded and the blackness slowly dripped from the butterfly. Like ink running off a slick surface.

In moments a pristine white butterfly floated above the charm. Adrien looked at Marinette. "It's gone Marinette." He touched her cheek with one hand. "The butterfly outline on your face. It's gone." He sounded ecstatic.

"We did it. We did it! Thank you Adrien! I couldn't have done it without you." Marinette looked deep into Adrien's eyes. Love and happiness shimmering there.

"No 'you' did it. You fought him off." He gazed tenderly back.

Marinette placed an hand on his jaw, "If you hadn't been here, believing in me, I may have not been able to resist."

Adrien smiled, "I'm just glad you stayed you." He pulled Marinette in for another hug. Marinette's arms folded around him and returned the embrace.


	20. Day 20 - Hamsters

**I wish to apologize to all. When I started this I had a week worths of stories done and had many ideas for others. Then client work, Easter and more client work bogged me down and I ran behind, then out. I do promise to everyone who has re-blogged, liked or followed me. I will finish out the month. I still have a lot of client stuff that needs to get done but I will do it! Knowing that there has been people following me and re-blogging my stories has given me the warmest of fuzzies. It has brought me up and made me feel so good about myself. **

**Now to whit and which….**

Marinette jumped out of bed realizing that she was going to be late, again, if she didn't hurry. It was her final year of Lycee and she really needed to get her act together. She quickly threw on some clothes, washed her face to wake herself up and grabbed a couple of croissants and cookies for her and Tikki to have for breakfast on the run.

As she ran to school she started to notice a lack of people. Even if all the kids were in school there should be adults walking around. She slows down a bit.

As she gets near to the school she now starts to notice what is around. There are small animals around. Rabbits, hedgehogs, mice, hamsters, rats, and guinea pigs?

Wait… they have clothes on? Who went around making tonnes of clothes for rodents? She walked up the steps of the school.

Adrien had noticed Marinette from afar. He had to get to her. He climbed up the wall of the steps and waited for her to come close. When she was a few feet away he yelled, "Marinette! Marinette! It's me, Adrien!"

Marinette heard a small voice. It was very high pitched. She looked around.

"Marinette!" the voice squeaked again. Marinette finally noticed a hamster on the wall of the school steps. It was standing on it's back legs and … waving at her? She walked closer.

"Marinette! I'm so glad you're here and you're you." Adrien said in his squeaky voice.

Marinette knelt down in front of the hamster. It was a golden colour, with long shaggy fur. It was wearing a white button up with a black t-shirt that had 5 stripes on it. Blue jeans fitted it's short back legs. The back paws were tinged orange.

"Adrien?" Marinette asked.

"Yup," he then gave a heavy sigh and slouched. "I don't know what happened. Everything was fine, people were walking around. Suddenly this bright blue-ish light bathes over the whole school and everyone is suddenly small animals. I was talking with Nino and Alya just inside."

Marinette held out he hands, cupping them for Adrien to sit in them. She brought him close to her face. "Are you ok?"

Adrien the hamster shrugged. "As much as I can be. I noticed that when I got hit Plagg shot out of my pocket and flew away as I was shrinking. I think he's hiding."

Marinette brought Adrien really close to her face. "Oh my gosh Adrien. You're so,… so.. you're just so cute!" She squeed and nuzzled Adrien against her cheek. "I've always wanted a hamster. This is probably as close as I'll get right now."

Tikki popped her head out of Marinette's purse. "Marinette, this isn't the time for that."

Marinette nodded, "I know. I just wanted to hold Adrien like this for a moment. We're going to have to find Plagg. This is obviously the work of an Akuma."

Adrien the hamster didn't mind Marinette's nuzzling at all. It felt good and made him feel warm and happy. "Plagg headed off towards the trees over there I think." He gestured with a paw.

Marinette looked in the direction the paw had waved and started down the steps. Adrien cried out when she was halfway down. She stopped.

"What's wrong Adrien?" She brought him up to her face again.

He was clinging to one of her fingers. "Your bouncing, It's hard to hold on. I don't think you can carry me in your hand like this. You may have to hold me tighter."

"I don't want to hurt you. You're so small now."

Adrien looked around, he thought for a moment of joining Tikki in the purse, but it didn't look big enough for both of them. He looked around some more when he suddenly got an idea. "Got it!" he proclaimed.

Adrien jumped from Marinette's hand to her arm and climbed to her shoulder. Then he dived for the opening of her top. Marinette had developed a while ago and had a very nice cleavage that, as her boyfriend, he admired. He squirmed around between her breasts and made himself comfortable under the edge of her bra.

"Adrien!" Marinette yelled when he first dived into her top. She then squealed and yelled some more as he tickled her as he got comfortable.

Adrien the hamster looked up a Marinette as she looked down. "What? It's comfy."

Marinette rolled her eyes. "Your Chat is showing," she singsonged.

"You can't deny I'm the perfect size to do this right now." He put his front paws behind his head and snuggled down more.

Marinette started off again. She went over to the trees Adrien had pointed out and suddenly thought of something. "Wait a moment, if you're that small what happened to your ring?"

Adrien the hamster held up his paw. "Surprisingly it shrunk down with me and it still fits my finger. I don't know if I'll be able to transform though. I think Plagg might be bigger than me right now."

"Also, you may not become Chat Noir. You may end up being Hamster Noir." Marinette said.

"Hmm… not a good thought." Tikki said from the purse. "It might be better if you don't even try to transform. Ladybug may have to do this on her own."

"Well, we'll see what Pagg says when we find him." Adrien the hamster pointed forwards with one paw. "Onward! We have a tiny cat god to find"


	21. Day 21 - Nightmare

Marinette woke from her sleep via a hand slapping at her arm and chest. A voice was groaning and moaning besides her.

Adrien tossed and turned in the bed next to her. He threw off the sheets and almost assaulted Marinette again.

Marinette turned over towards him and called out, "Adrien? Adrien hon! It's o…" Just before she could put her hand on his chest he shot up and screamed.

"LEMMIE OUT!"

Plagg and Tikki were woken up too and flew over to see what was wrong.

In their 3 years of marriage Marinette had never seen Adrien wake up like that.

"Adrien my love, what happened? What did you dream about?" Marinette had sat up and was gently rubbing Adrien's back with one hand while the other held his.

Adrien took a moment to calm down. He brushed the hair out of his face as he steadied his breathing. Marinette just kept whispering soft nothings to help Adrien relax. Plagg had floated to Adrien's shoulder and nuzzled into his neck and lay there softly purring. Tikki had landed on Marinette's shoulder.

"Mon Dieu princess. It was horrible." Adrien's hands still shook a little.

"It was just a nightmare Adrien, it wasn't real." Marinette touched her forehead to Adrien's.

Adrien sighed and pulled his head back a little. "In some ways it was real. I used to have these nightmares occasionally of being locked in a cage. Or of bars suddenly coming down on the windows of my room. This was way worse."

"I remember you having those," Plagg said while still purring. "Some nights those were really bad. They happened a lot when his dad got really overprotective and kept him in the house for very little reason."

Adrien tried to look at Plagg, "This took the cake Plagg." Plagg pulled back to see into Adrien's eyes.

"I dreamt I was on a catwalk. This disembody voice told me to walk to my point and turn left. I did so and the voice again told me to walk and turn left. It went on for a bit before I realized I was on a square catwalk. There was no extra ramp for walking on or off. I tried to jump off but there was some kind of invisible wall all around the sides. I couldn't jump out or even into the centre. The voice yelled at me to walk again. I started banging on the walls and suddenly there was this electric shock that came up from the floor. I started walking again. Slowly the lights came up and I could see hundreds of Chole's mom sitting in the audience, all just laughing at me. I tried to get away and I was shocked again. I started pounding on the walls and I kept getting shocked. It was horrible."

Adrien was nearly in tears. Marinette hugged him, Plagg purred even louder and even Tikki flew to Adrien's cheek and hugged it.

They all sat there giving Adrien comfort for quite a while until the tears that started to fall slowly ebbed away.

Marinette pulled back and gently clasped Adrien's jaw with both hands and turned his face so she could look into his eyes. "It's over Adrien. You never have to walk a catwalk again. You never have to model for your father again. It all ended with his Hawk Moth rein. He gave up trying to get your mom back so he could be with you. He realized that what he was doing to you was not what a father should do. He finally started treating you like a proper son and the third thing he did was asked you what you wanted to be. He's never going to make you walk a catwalk again."

"But Marinette, I was wearing one of your outfits." Adrien said softly, the tears coming back.

Marinette gasped and covered her mouth with one hand. "Oh Merde! Adrien. No, I'd never, no," Marinette's voice broke off in horror.

Adrien clasped her hands, "But I love it. See, I'm wearing it now."

Marinette looked down to see that Adrien was wearing one of the outfits she had just designed for her fall collection debut at Agreste Fashion.

—

Marinette screamed and threw herself out of bed so hard she hit the floor.

Adrien sat up, "Huh?" he mumbled sleepily. "What?" He pushed a hand through his hair. He looked over to see Marinette on the floor.

She was wide eyed and breathing hard.

He held out a hand for her and helped her back on to the bed. He pulled her close and asked sleepily, "Was it that nightmare where you gave me a nightmare of being trapped on a catwalk wearing one of your outfits?"

Marinette nodded and cuddled closer.

Adrien shook his head, "I knew you taking over the designing aspect of father's company was going to be too hard on you. You didn't have to start running it after he was revealed to be Hawk Moth and jailed. I could have just hired a bunch of designers and let you work into it gradually. This back to back to back fashion weeks in 3 different countries was always hard on him. You doing it with never having done it before was always going to be extremely hard on you."

"Just because we stopped his plans and had him arrested after 8 years doesn't mean that we should let everyone who worked for him suffer." Marinette yawned. "It's only 5 more days until it's all done. Then we will never do one of these 3 weekers again. Ever. They not only cause nightmares, they are nightmares."

Adrian chuckled. He then lifted Marinette's face to his and placed a kiss on her lips. "Well, we could do something else to get your mind off the stress and worry." He smirked in a very Chat Noir way and leaned over Marinette to capture her lips once more.

Nightmare forgotten, for now, Marinette kissed him back and ran her hands over his chest. sinking into his warmth and comfort.


	22. Day 22 - Aged up

"AKUMA!" was heard from a side street not too far from Adrien.

"Plagg, Cla—-"

"What?!" Adrien had been hit with a red beam of light before he could transform. He was suddenly a very little old man. He was shrivelled and somewhere under 60 centimetres tall, but he was hunched, making him look even smaller. Quite a difference from his normal 172 centimetres. If he had to guess, he was about 90 years old.

Marinette ran around the corner and almost into Adrien. "Eeeeeeeekkkkk!" she screeched.

Marinette barely recognized Adrien. He looked like one of those tiny old men that she had seen in the Japanese Manga Adrien was bringing to school recently. She only knew it was him because of the clothes he was wearing.

"Mari!" Adrien exclaimed in a high-pitched but raspy voice. He climbed Marinette as easily as if she was a pole. He kissed her cheek and quickly copped a feel. He then jumped off her and ran away.

Marinette was dumbfounded. Tikki brought her attention to the fact that she needed to fight an akuma. She shook her head and ran into an alley to transform.

As Ladybug arrived on the scene she noted that Paris was looking like a refuge for old folks. Something seemed off about them all though.

"Have you noticed we all look like only 2 versions of old people?" A high-pitched voice said behind her.

She looked to see Chat Noir. At least it had to be Chat. He was a little old man in a black catsuit sitting on the top of his extendable staff. "Chat?" Ladybug had to be sure.

"At your service, My Lady." Chat had actually stood on the tip of the staff and bowed. He sat back down again. "Did you notice?"

Ladybug looked at all the old people. Other than the clothes that all looked like the same old people. A male version and a female version. "They are copies of the same person?" She guessed.

"Almost." He winked, "Everyone is either Happosai or Cologne from Ranma ½. This even includes the actions."

Ladybug watched as it looked like all the old men were flirting with any young woman they could find and the old women were bouncing around on sticks and chasing after the old men.

"What?" Ladybug said.

"They look and act like characters from a Japanese Anime series. Happosai usually tries to flirt with girls and steal their underware." Adrien wasn't amused as Ladybug tried to move away from him. "Oh hardy har. I happen to be a gentle-cat. I wouldn't dream of doing things like that."

Ladybug found it hard to believe, but she would give him the benefit of the doubt.

"OK, let's go!" Chat tore off down the street running faster than he ever had before. It was almost comical.

They eventually found the akuma. Broke the object, a poster. And found out the victim was a young boy who his friends had made fun of because he like those 2 old characters and thought they should become a couple in the manga. **(I know - reach)**

Ladybug and Chat Noir went their separate ways as their miraculous were beeping.

After Marinette transformed back she felt odd. She couldn't put her finger on it though. She was walking back to the bakery when she saw Adrien also heading there.

She met him at the front where he had stopped upon seeing her.

"H-hey, Ma-marinette." Adrien stuttered, which was very unusual for him.

"Hey Ad-adrien." Marinette stuttered back.

"Umm," Adrien rubbed the back of his head with one hand. "Can we go into your house for a moment? Uh please?" There was a very faint tinge of pink on Adrien's cheeks.

"S-sure." Marinette blushed and took Adrien inside. They said hello to her parents and Adrien actually blushed as they went past.

Marinette let him into the living room and motioned to the couch.

Adrien shook a hand in front of himself. "No. No thank you." He looked every where but Marinette's face for a moment.

"You wanted to say me something… Say something to me?" Marinette asked.

"Ughhhh," Adrien blushed even more and reached into the inside of his jacket. He slowly pulled out a piece of cloth. With a shaking hand he held it towards Marinette.

Marinette, confused, looked down at the cloth when Adrien still wouldn't look at her. It was pink. It looked like it had straps attached to roundish triangles. It was at this moment Marinette's face flushed completely red and her breathing stammered and stuttered very loudly.

A slow scream started to rise in her throat.

"Please don't scream!" Adrien said in a rush. "I didn't mean to. It's just that I got hit by the ray and you were suddenly there. I couldn't really control myself at the beginning there. I just jumped on you and kissed your cheek and then I ran off not realizing what I had done." Adrien finished looking down at his feet with both hands holding the cloth out. His face and neck were beet red and it looked like he might be hyperventilating.

Marinette slowly extend a hand to the cloth and picked it up by a strap. It unfolded into a bra. Her bra. She finally realized why she felt wrong. She was no longer wearing a bra. In fact she now had in her hands the very same bra she left the house in. Adrien Agreste was holding her bra.

"I think when I gave you that kiss I must have taken the bra then. I have no idea how I got it off you. All I can say is sorry." Adrien couldn't possibly get redder so he started to sweat.

"Thank you for returning my bra Adrien. I'm going to lay down now." Marinette then proceeded to faint. Adrien caught her and didn't know what to do.


	23. Day 23 - Fashion show

**(PLEASE NOTE - THE EXPLOSION IS FICTIOUS. I MADE IT UP FOR THE SAKE OF THE STORY. I DO NOT WISH FOR ANYTHING LIKE THIS TO EVER HAPPEN TO ANYONE.)**

It's just the class. It's just our families. It's raising funds for a worthy cause. It's a chance to show my work before I get big.

Marinette tried to calm herself down with these reassurances. She had been floored when Jagged Stone had approached her for another commission. He had loved his shades so much and they were such a big hit on the tour he had done that he wanted an actual outfit designed.

Tikki had been offering comfort to Marinette the 2 weeks it had been going on. She had been such a source of encouragement Marinette would never have gotten through it with her sanity intact. Well, Tikki and all the others that helped her with this.

As she paced in front of Adrien getting into make up she wondered, 'How did one outfit end up being a fashion show?'

—–

Originally she had been meeting with Jagged and Penny for a new outfit to tour in. After talking with Jagged she had 5 designs that she wanted to show him. He had liked 4 of them but couldn't decide which one to use and was suggesting she make them all up. He'd pay for them of course, and if they were all really good he'd use them in his shows.

Penny had joked about Jagged being a personal fashion show for Marinette.

It was at that moment the TV in the hotel suite broke the news that there had been an explosion on the D20 outskirts of Saint-Vulbas. Some terrorists had been on the way to the Bugey Nuclear Power Plant with a bomb in a large van. There was evidence they were going to drive as close to the reactors as they could. However police had stopped the truck before they could get anywhere near the plant. The suspects decided to set of the bomb anyways and the explosion destroyed a portion of the city, leaving a 1km crater that took out a good portion of the town.

Already emergency crews were on the scene and the French Government had offered relief and aid to the small town. A list of places people could donate food, clothing and blankets was being created and the news anchor was urging everyone to help any way they could.

"I want to help them." Marinette said as the news cast went on. "I want to send them something. I could get some material make blankets and maybe even simple shirts in lots of sizes and slip on pants." She started pacing and planning, "My parents could make some breads and croissants and we could ship them. And I could organize a food drive at the school with…"

Penny cut Marinette off. "That's a lot to do for you. It's great to help out but you don't want to overdo it yourself and get too exhausted to manage it." She placed a hand on Marinette's shoulder. "Also buying all that material to make clothes will be expensive. It might be better to do a clothing and food drive. You don't need to make it a big show."

"Yes she does Penny." Jagged had stood up as well.

"What?" Both ladies said.

"A big show! We can help her put on a big show and gather up supplies, clothes, food and donations towards re-building. Did you say with me using 4 of her outfits on tour I'd be her own fashion show?"

"I meant it as a joke Jagged." Penny said.

"But we could make it real! We can help her set it. She designs a few more outfits and we get some of her school chums to show them off. Charge at the door! Have a set up for dropping off clothes and food at the show." Jagged pulled Marinette to his side. "It will be big! I know you can do it." He grabbed Penny and said theyd be in touch. He was going to talk to the mayor about renting the ballroom.

Tikki floated up from Marinette's purse. "What just happened?"

"I'm not sure Tikki," Marinette looked at the little red kwami. "I think I was just signed up to do a fashion show."

Over the next few days it was sorted out that Penny and Jagged were going to organize most of it. Marinette just had to come up with 4 more designs and sew 8 outfits in 2 weeks.

—–

After staying up late for 2 days designing the other 4 outfits it showed on Marinette. It was first period and she was asleep at her desk.

Adrien looked at her as he walked in with Nino. He turned to Alya, "What's wrong with Marinette?"

"She managed to finish the last of the designs last night." Alya said while patting Marinette's head. "Poor girl is so stressed right now."

"Oh, the fashion show to raise funds for Saint-Vulbas. I was thinking of asking my dad if I could be a model for her show." Adrien looked at Marinette with fondness.

"Well, you'll have to let her know today. After school she's going have to get the measurements of everyone and start sewing all 8 outfits tonight. Jagged is picking her up after dinner to go buy the material she needs." Alya continued to stroke Marinette's hair.

"She's sewing them all on her own?" Nino asked.

"Mmm hm." Alya nodded. "I would love to help her but I keep making a mess of things when I try to sew."

"I could ask my dad for help." Adrien spoke.

"Really?" Alya asked.

"Yeah, I know we're in between shows and shoots so things aren't busy for the seamstresses. Maybe dad would be willing to let one or two of them help out. They know how to sew on a deadline." Adrien glanced at the sleeping girl. "Do you think she would like the help? I don't want to come across as her not being able to do it, but that is a lot of work."

Marinette chose that moment to wake up with a start. "Put your sleeves back on!" She yelled.

Alya, Nino and Adrien were shocked for a moment. Then they all burst out laughing.

"Not funny guys." Marinette realized what had happened. "I had a horrible dream that one of my dresses decided it looked better without sleeves and took them off itself."

"That is funny." Nino chuckled.

"Hey Marinette?" Adrien asked softly.

"Yeah?" she responded sleepily.

"Would you be alright if I asked my dad if we could get help from one of the seamstresses? You give them the designs and they can do the sewing for some of the outfits." He smiled at her.

"I wouldn't want to put them out. I'm supposed to be designing the outfits and I should make them." She was interrupted by a yawn before she could go on.

"It's not a problem. You need the help. 8 outfits in 2 weeks while still going to school is going to be a lot. Also," Adrien started before she could argue further. "While my dad designs, he really doesn't do the sewing anymore. Maybe on a specific outfit but he usually gets the seamstresses to do the work."

Marinette thought for a moment and nodded. She was way too tired to put up much of a fight. Besides, all Adrien was going to do was ask. Didn't mean that his dad would help.

—–

Adrien went home for lunch and asked Nathalie if he could chat with father for a moment.

She came back after Adrien had finished eating and said that his father would see him now.

Adrien asked his father first if it was alright if he was a model for Marinette and Jagged's fashion show. Adrien explained what the show was for and how much work Marinette was going to have to do and how he'd really like to help her out. Would he be willing to have a few of his designs in the show too to help draw in more people.

Gabriel agreed to Adrien modelling as it was for a good cause. However he would not have his designs in the fashion show. After all it was supposed to be Marinette's designs. He commented that 8 outfits in less than 2 weeks would be hard for a school girl so he agreed to lend two seamstresses to help out. But they would all have work in the studio downtown.

Adrien thanked his dad and went back to school really happy. He told Marinette what his dad was going to do.

She almost passed out.

During the last class the teacher said that in support of the Fashion Show Fundraiser Marinette could take this time to get the measurements of the students willing to be models and that those who wanted to help out in others ways could meet with Penny in the main yard to talk about how they could help with the food and clothing drive portion of the fashion show.

Adrien, Kim, Max and Nino would be the male models. Chloe, Juleka, Rose and Alix would be the female models.

Ivan, Mylene, Sabrina and Alya decided to help out at the drives. Nathanael says he is going to ask Penny if it would be alright if he did some artwork that could be sold. Lila says she is helping her mother with some of the government organized things and asks to leave.

Since Adrien's measurements are in his dad's file Marinette quickly takes the measurements of the others and has Adrien write them down.

—–

When Jagged comes by after dinner he says they are swinging by the Agreste place first.

"Why are we going there?" Marinette asks.

"We're picking up Adrien Agreste. His dad called me this afternoon and said you could have access to his fabric room to pick out stuff for the outfits." Jagged helped her into the car. "Adrien is going to allow us access into the building."

Marinette was floored.

Over the next week and a half Marinette went to school during the day and then her and Adrien would go to his fathers business offices downtown and she'd look over what the 2 ladies had done. As the seamstresses could work all day long they said they'd do the majority of the outfits for Marinette.

Marinette insisted on making Adrien's and Rose's outfits herself as they were going to be the only matched pair.

Rose drops by a couple of nights in a row for fittings. Adrien has been hanging out with Marinette the whole time. Chatting, trying on the outfit and just watching her sew. The other class mates came by 4 days before the show for their first fittings.

With 2 days before the show all the outfits were complete and final fittings were done.

—–

The afternoon of the show Marinette was a bundle of nerves.

Marinette was pacing and worrying in front of Adrien as a makeup artist put on the final touches before he was to go out for the show. "Oh gawd, what if people see the outfits and hate them and demand their money back. What if someone trips and breaks a leg or an arm. What if Hawk Moth finally decides to attack. I'm glad that he hasn't done anything since the bombing but he could change his mind today. What if.."

Adrien, finished with makeup, got up, went over to Marinette and put his hands on her shoulders to stop her.

"Everything will be fine. Everyone is in their outfits and they look great. They're getting makeup on. We all went through rehearsals yesterday and know where to walk. Safety inspectors have looked over everything and it's all safe. Nathalie is stagemanaging." Adrien kissed Marinette's forehead. "Nothing will go wrong."

Marinette blushed and almost forgot to breathe.

"Yeah Mari," Kim struck a pose, "These outfits are amazing."

"I feel pretty." Juleka said. And she looked it. Everyone else made positive remarks about how everything looked and how well it would go.

"Now," Adrien put an arm around Marinette and steered her towards Penny and Jagged. "Go. You need to be with them greeting people before coming back her before the show actually starts. We'll take care of everything back here until then. When the last of us have come out for the final walk you join us on the stage and receive your well earned congratulations."

Marinette looked at all her friends backstage and almost started to cry. "Thank you everyone." She then went out and hugged Jagged. Now she just had to wait for the show to start.


	24. Day 24 - Bridal style

"Why?"

"Why what Marinette?" Alya turned her head and looked at the girl who had suddenly yelled.

Marinette and Alya were walking between classes on their way to gym.

"Why is it called bridal style?" Marinette was ticked off at the upcoming gym class because they were doing silly partner obstacle course exercises. "I can understand having a section called the fireman's carry, and the piggy back section. But why the Bridal Style section?"

Alya tried to calm Marinette down. "It's just an old term. Nobody knows where it came from but it's just what is used." she said dismissively.

"That's not the point. Can't they say 'cradle in arms' or 'front carry'? Those terms make a lot more sense. Not every country has the tradition of carrying the bride over the threshold and even then it can't apply when it's a guy being carried." Marinette pouted and crossed her arms as she started to stomp.

They met up with Nino and Adrien father down the hall.

"It's old fashion and doesn't really apply to an exercise." Marinette went on.

Nino fell into step beside Alya. "What doesn't apply?" he asked.

Alya rolled her eyes, "Marinette doesn't like the term 'Bridal Style'."

Adrien who had fallen in beside Marinette said, "I kind of agree with that. While it may apply when a it's a girl being carried, it doesn't really fit when a guy caries a guy."

Marinette shot Adrien a dirty look, "What about when a girl carries a guy?"

Adrien suddenly felt like he had said the wrong thing as they all paused in the hall.

"Ah, well… not that per say, I mean.. um…" Adrien rubbed the back of his neck.

"I think he just meant when a girl is being carried." Nino tried to calm Marinette down.

Marinette put her arms down by her side, her hands clenched in fists. "So you don't think a girl can carry a guy 'bridal style'?" She challenged.

Nino raised his hands and backed away, "No not saying that. Just you usually don't see a girl carrying a guy."

"Well see about that." Marinette shoved her school bag at Alya. She then bent down and put one arm behind Adrien's knees and the other around his back. She lifted him into a 'bridal style' carry and started marching off. "See! Girls can carry guys!"

Alya and Nino watched a very red faced Adrien being carried off by Marinette. Lots of students watched Marinette as she carried Adrien into gym class.

"Dang, I didn't know she was that strong." Nino adjusted his hat as he watched her walk away.

Alya started to lightly giggle. "I wonder what she's going to do when she realizes she's holding Adrien?"

After a moment there was a shriek followed by a thud, an ow and much apologizing from the gym classroom.


	25. Day 25 - Protect

"AAAAUUUGGGHHHHH!" The scream tore from Adrien's lips as he fell.

Marinette stopped where she was and glanced at him, "Adrien!" she cried and ran over to him.

Adrien was laying on the ground on his stomach, panting.

Marinette knelt beside him and gently turned him over, laying his head against her legs as she brushed the hair from his face. "Adrien, are you ok?" she asked in a nervous whisper.

Adrien opened his eyes and looked up at her. He slowly raised his hand to caress her cheek gently. "I did it Marinette. I saved you. I managed to get behind you and protect you."

Marinette gazed down into his green eyes. "You didn't have to protect me Adrien. I can take care of myself. It's sweet of you to protect me but it got you hurt." Marinette could feel tears forming in her eyes.

Adrien took in a slow gasp of breath, as if it were one of the last he would ever take. "I would do anything to protect you." He slowly let out his remaining breath and let his arm gently fall to his side as he closed his eyes.

Marinette was shocked, she couldn't believe it. Adrien had wanted to protect her. He got hurt and was dying because of trying to protect her. She raised a hand to her mouth and choked back a sob.

Nino walked up and and put a hand on Marinette shoulder. He addressed the head laying in her lap.

"That's sweet and all dude, but it's just water balloons." Nino held up the one he was holding. "And laying there just make you an easy target." Nino then proceeded to let it fall from his hand onto Adrien's chest, where it burst and sprayed all three of them. Nino then went back to where Alya was.

Adrien let out a grunt and sat up, shaking the water from his face and arms. "Way to ruin my death scene." He chuckled. "You ok Marinette?" He asked as he helped her up.

"Water ba-ball..."she stammered.

"Yeah," he said as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Nino thought it a crime that I've never had a water balloon fight before. Him and Alya got stuff together and we've been having fun. One Alya threw went wild and was about to hit you as you were walking by. I couldn't let you get hurt. Anyways, want to join?"

Marinette took a moment to process everything while she stood there in confusion.

"Marinette?" Adrien waved a hand in front of her as the other lightly touched her arm.

She shook her head and looked up at him, a smile spreading across her face. "Sure. I'd love to."

Adrien grasped her had and pulled her along to where a huge of bucket of water balloons stood. Alya cheered and handed her a couple. Marinette immediately slapped one on Adrien's head. As he stood there in shock, water dripping from his hair, Marinette grabbed another balloon and ran off a little ways.

"That's what you get for scaring me that you actually hurt yourself." She stuck out her tongue and skipped away.

"Oh it is on," Adrien muttered under his breath. He picked up a couple of balloons and yelled, "See if I protect you now!"

The four of them ran about throwing balloons at each other and having a thoroughly fun time.


	26. Day 26 - Civilian Heros

Adrien thought he heard a small noise beside him. He looked to his left and noticed Marinette standing on the low stage beside him. She was looking out at the crowd in front of them. He saw her slowly raise her hand a little and kind of wave. He looked out to the crowd and saw her parents enthusiastically waving back.

Adrien scanned the audience and noticed Nathalie near the front with his father on a tablet. 'As usual,' he thought. 'Father can't come here in person. At least he did make time to attend, even over a screen.'

Adrien tried to tune his thoughts to what Principal Damocles was saying. Himself, Marinette, Ivan, Juleka and Kim were all standing on a small stage in front of most of the school. There were also various parents and important people in the seated crowd. A small group of firefighters stood in the back along with some paramedics. Sabrina's father, Officer Raincomprix and some other police officers were standing at the sides of the stage.

There was a podium on the stage that was loaded with various microphones from news sources. Cameras were off to the side of the seating of the audience.

Adrien shook his thoughts and tried to listen to the principal again.

"... and without further ado, please welcome Mayor Bourgeois to speak a few words." Mr. Damocles smiled and gestured to the mayor of Paris as he took the podium.

"Thank you Mr. Damocles," he stated as he placed a set of papers in front of himself. "Ladies and gentlemen, members of our Emergency Response teams and members of the press. It is my honour to be here today to give thanks to 5 students of Francois DuPont College. Without their selflessness and courage we would be facing a great tragedy today."

"As many of you know, a couple of weeks ago the class was on a field trip to a historical house that had just opened it doors to public walking tours. The class was one among many groups that were in the building. Juleka Couffaine was the first to smell the smoke and notice it coming from the first floor while they were all on the second. She alerted the others and proceeded to guide people out."

"Adrien Agreste and Marinette Dupain-Cheng went through the building warning other groups and looking for anyone needing help. The fire unfortunately grew quickly and during the evacuation a section of wall eventually fell blocking people from leaving. Ivan Bruel and Lê Chiến Kim in a feat of strength lifted a portion of the wall to allow others to escape. They then held the wall as Mlle Couffaine, Mlle Dupain-Cheng and Mr Agreste scoured the building for anyone left behind."

"After many long minutes Mlle Couffaine came out saying that she though she had heard cries from the third floor but hadn't been able to find anyone. She herself was suffering from the effects of the smoke and could no longer search. Mlle Dupain-Cheng and Mr Agreste both proceeded to the third floor and listened for the cries. Mlle Dupain-Cheng heard a cry and found 2 tourists trapped behind a fallen bookcase. Mr Agreste joined her in pushing the bookcase aside and retrieving the tourists. They then guided them to the back of the second floor as the stairs to the first were now impassable. During this time Mr Bruel and Mr Kim had let the wall go and were searching from the outside to see if they could see anyone trapped within."

"Mlle Couffaine noticed the 4 people on the second floor and also noticed a large tarp near a neighbouring house. Mr Bruel and Mr Kim grabbed the tarp and held it below a window that Mr Agreste had smashed open. People from the other tours joined them in stretching the tarp to catch the tourists and final students from the building."

"Fire crews arrived on the scene minutes later and extinguished the fire. Preventing the fire from spreading to other buildings nearby. We would like to thank these five students for their selfless deeds during that time."

Marinette was pulled from her thoughts as she heard the audience applaud. Her mind had gone back to the fire. She relived those minutes as they waited for the tarp to be stretched below so they could jump down. One of the tourists had had the bookcase bang against their leg as it fell and had trouble walking. Marinette remembers looking from the tourists leg, to Adrien to the doorway billowing smoke and back and forth between them. Once the tarp was stretched they helped the tourists out and Marinette looked back to see flames cross the wall across from the doorway. She vaguely remembered Adrien grabbing her saying it was her turn to jump. He'd be right behind her.

Marinette then felt air underneath her and looked up at Adrien's face as she fell. As she had bounced she noticed Adrien look back into the room. Hands quickly pulled her from the tarp and it was barely pulled taunt again as Adrien tumbled out the window. Marinette started to shiver at the memory.

Adrien had been listening to the chief of the fire department thanking them for their help. He heard a small gasp and a sniffle from Marinette. He glanced down at her before looking back at the crowd. 'Is she remembering the fire?' he wondered.

Out of all the moments, the only one that scared him then was when he heard something bang down the hall. Marinette had just gone out the window when he heard it. He turned to look and saw a blast of flames go past the door. He instinctively backed away and his foot caught on something and he started to fall backwards out the window.

As he fell he worried that Marinette might still be below him. That she hadn't gotten out of the way and he would fall on her, hurting her, possibly crushing her. Then in a rush he felt himself being caught in the tarp and being suspended for a moment as everyone held on. He was quickly lowered to the ground as he had come down hard and they couldn't hold him. His back hit the ground hard, but he would survive. As he lay there in shock Marinette rushed to his side. She had leaned over him looking into his eyes.

"You're alright," she whispered to him before lowering herself and holding him as she could as he lay there. He placed his arms around her and squeezed. He heard her sob and held tighter for a moment. Hands helped him and Marinette up.

He pulled himself from his memories and noticed that the chief had finished his speech and was placing a medal around Juleka's neck. He glanced at Marinette again and noticed she was facing the crowd but had a glimmer of tears in her eyes.

Adrien slowly moved his hand towards hers and gently intertwined their pinkies. He felt her partially pull away then tighten her pinky around his. The fire chief moved in front of him and Adrien leaned forward to allow the chief to place the medal around his neck.

"Thank you." The chief intoned. Adrien nodded his head and held out the hand not holding Marinette's for a handshake.

The fire chief reached to a tray and picked up the last medal. He moved in front of Marinette to place the medal around her neck. She leaned forward when he noticed her and Adrien's hands holding each other by the pinkies. He smiled to himself.

"Thank you." He intoned. He then held out his off hand to Marinette so she wouldn't have to let go of Adrien. She smiled and shook his hand.

The chief turned to the audience. "Ladies and gentlemen. Let's give a big round of applause to the 5 civilian heros." He stepped back and started clapping, the whole group soon joined him.

The 5 students blushed and bowed.


	27. Day 27 - Marinette & the Agreste

Marinette looked down at Gabriel Agreste. After a long while she finally said, "You have to be the worst and best parent in one fell swoop." She held within herself a lot of hate towards the man who had made Adrien's life hard. "All this, pushing Adrien away while trying to bring his mother back. Good intentions, bad execution."

Finding out that Gabriel was Hawk Moth filled her with anger. Anger that she had barely contained as she watch Adrien breakdown in front of his father.

Marinette and Adrien hadn't been in their suits when they had confronted Gabriel. In fact they still didn't know who each other was at this moment.

They had gone to talk to him about something for a school project they were doing for 2nd year lycee science. They were going to do an essay on chemicals to treat fabrics with to change them for fashion. They had been milling around his office waiting. Marinette had tripped near the painting of Adrien's mom and fell into it. Somehow a hole opened in the floor and Adrien, who had rushed to help Marinette, had fallen down it.

She had jumped down to see if Adrien was alright when they heard a gasp from the shadows. Hawk Moth stepped forward. Needless to say there had been much yelling and tears between Adrien and his father. The reason why Gabriel was doing this was... honourable? Not right, but done with a good intention. To bring back his love, Adrien's mother, to heal their family and make them all whole again,... that was a wonderful ideal. It was pointed out that once he had drawn out the heros, he could have asked. He could have mentioned at any time, actually. Drawn them to a quite corner with an Akuma, talked, pleaded, something other than continuing to terrorize Paris.

'It was to bring back your mother!' 'Would she have wanted you to do this!' 'It was the only way!' 'You could have asked!'

The arguing got so heated that Marinette was about to interject and punch Gabriel when suddenly Adrien had done it. He hit his father so hard, and suddenly, and unexpectedly. Gabriel didn't have time to react. He fell backwards, unfortunately hitting his head on a small table that was in the back of the room.

The quiet that fell was heavy. Adrien then rushed to his father's side as the transformation melted away. Marinette stood in horror for a moment, then she started to yell up the hole. Screaming for help.

Nathalie had heard.

Paramedics were called, the secret back way to the room was opened. The rush to the hospital. It had all passed in a blur for Adrien. Nathalie was doing all she could to keep the Hawk Moth aspect away from the press. It was being spun as father and son having an argument and tempers flaring.

Adrien felt horrible. He had put his father in a coma. The head injury was not severe but it had totally knocked him out. Nathalie had told Adrien that they were going to try to keep the Hawk Moth aspect from the public. His father wouldn't get the justice he deserved, but, Adrien wouldn't loose him either.

Marinette had slipped in as Ladybug at one point and took the Butterfly Miraculous from Gabriel's effects. She then talked to Nathalie, finding out that she was Mayura. She took her Miraculous too. Then she was shown to Emile's 'case'. Told the story of how she came to be there due to the broken Peacock Miraculous.

Marinette had told Master Fu what had happened. He had then examined Emile. He would try to revive her but he didn't hold much hope. Nathalie was sick too from the Peacock Miraculous, but Master Fu should be able to help her.

Marinette leaned down to Gabriel as he lay there. Adrien had finally been convinced by Nino and Alya to get something to eat. Nathalie was busy running the company. So Marinette was watching Gabriel for the moment.

"For Adrien's sake Nathalie is keeping the Hawk Moth side out of any reports. You're lucky I'm Ladybug. I'm going to help Nathalie keep this under wraps. For Adrien's sake, I don't want to see you sent off to prison. You need to become a better father though."

Marinette slumped in the chair that Adrien had been sitting in. She was emotionally exhausted.

"You better wake up. Adrien needs you. It doesn't look like Master Fu can save Emile. Adrien needs a father in his life. You did this for the right reason but in the wrong way. You've hurt Adrien. I don't know if I can ever forgive you for that." Marinette sat up.

"I love Adrien, and it hurts to see him blaming himself for you lying there. It was an accident. It was beyond his control. If you hadn't been doing all this in the first place then Adrien wouldn't have been angry at you, hit you, hurt you."  
Marinette forced herself to unclench her fists. She wiped at the tears at her eyes.

"All this time you could have been loving Adrien. But you must have loved both him and Emile a lot if you went through all this trouble to bring her back, for both of you." She paused for a deep breath. "I don't know if you approve of me, and I don't care. I'm going to take care of Adrien the way you should have. I'm going to listen to him talk about his day. I'm going to ask him what he wants to do. I'm going to let him just be Adrien. I've already asked my parents and Nathalie if I can stay in the house with him. And they agree. He needs people to support him, to love him. And if he never loves me back, that's fine."

Marinette straightened and stood up. She grabbed her left arm with her right hand. "Loving someone can make you do strange things. When you wake up, you better treat him right and embrace this second chance with open arms and an open heart. Or I'll come back as Ladybug and you don't want that."

Marinette turned slightly. "Now I've just gotta find that silly kitty and let him know what's happened and see if he'll keep quiet about it."

"You don't have to worry about that. I'll keep quiet."

Marinette gasped and turned to the door. There stood Adrien. Her mind reeled for a moment. Adrien took that moment to step towards her. Plagg flew from Adrien's shirt and hovered by his shoulder but she didn't notice.

"A-Adrien..." Marinette trailed off.

"Princess." Adrien responded.

Marinette nervously brushed her bangs from her forehead. "How much did you hear?"

"Since just before you told him you're Ladybug, My Lady." Adrien lowered his eyelids and smirked. Looking just like Cat Noir for a moment.

A shiver ran up Marinette's spine.

Adrien moved closer, "Thank you for offering to stay in the house with me. I appreciate and welcome it." He raised a hand to her cheek.

Marinette's nerves went wild, "Kitty?"

Adrien leaned down, slowly, giving Marinette a chance to pull away. "So you love me? You want to take care of me?" he whispered, his lips almost touching hers.

"Yes," Marinette sighed.

"Even if I don't love you back?"

"Even if you never care for me at all."

"What about Cat Noir? Can you love him?"

"I think I may have loved him a little from the beginning, other wise I wouldn't care for him so much." Marinette, dragged air into her lungs. Her Kitty and Adrien being the same person was so easy to accept after all this time.

"Would it surprise you to find out that while I love Ladybug a certain girl with black pigtails and lots of resolve has been slowly squirming her way into my heart?" Adrien had found himself attracted to Marinette quite a while ago. When he noticed that her laughter made him happy inside beyond any words.

"Just a little." Marinette leaned a fraction closer.

"Well," he gave a trademarked Cat Noir grin, "It happened. How can I convince you?"

A pause, "Kiss me?"

"As you wish," Adrien leaned down and captured her lips with his. They both slowly moved their arms around the other. Stepping closer.

Plagg knew this was going to go on for a while and shook his head. Tikki floated up beside him. Looking at each other, Plagg let Tikki drag him to Marinette's purse so they could leave the new couple alone.


	28. Day 28 - Adrien Dupain-Cheng

"Adrien, can I borrow your Public Relations notes from the last few classes?" Marinette had been digging through her bag. "I can't find my notebook and I need to look up something for my essay."

Adrien and Marinette were lucky that they had at least 1 class together at University. Since they had found out who their hero selves where last year it gave them a chance to get to know each other on both sides of the masks. Finding out they were each other's crushes was elating but made them back off as they realized they needed to know each other better before becoming an item.

Though it could be said that they were almost dating. Each had shown the other that they were interested, they had gone out to various events together, but not *together*. It was almost a prelude to dating.

So, Adrien didn't even glance up from his seat in the library where they were studying, "It's the blue and black blotchy notebook in the big pocket of my backpack."

Marinette got the book from his bag and sat down beside Adrien at the table. She took her own note book and wrote down anything in hers that she felt was important beyond the last few days notes.

They sat in companionable silence. Each studying their own thing and the only sound was pages turning and pens scraping across notepads.

The sound of writing stopped from Marinette. Adrien looked over as the silence from her was rather dis-quieting.

Marinette was staring at a page she had just turned to. On it was the words… Adrien Dupain-Cheng circled with a red pen. There were other variations of his name with hers, versions with multiple hyphens in various orders. They had been crossed out. There were also Adrien's and her names with a different last name altogether that were crossed out too.

Marinette slowly held up the book for Adrien to see.

He blushed. Adrien looked like he was trying to figure out what to say.

"Well, I'm waiting." Marinette narrowed her eyes.

Adrien slid his chair closer. He put one arm along the back of her chair. "Marinette, I know we aren't even dating yet. I know we aren't a 'thing'. But sometimes, after my dad's been tough, or the photo shoots run long, or I just get tired of being Adrien, I like to imagine we're far away from here. No one knows who we are. So I've been thinking of other names for us, well me."

He pointed to the one he had circled. "I like that one the best." He smiled at Marinette and pressed his forehead to hers.

Marinette smiled. "And just what makes you think we are most definitely getting married?"

He pulled back, "I'm not assuming." He looked fake offended and put a hand to his chest in a dramatic flare.

Marinette giggled. "The only way we could be together with my last name would be marriage."

"Uhun." waved a finger and put it to Marinette's lips. "I could legally change my name and we could just live in sin, letting everyone 'think' we were married."

Marinette started to laugh, only to have a librarian shush her.

Blushing she looked at Adrien. "And you're sure I'd go for that?"

"No, you wouldn't. Of course I'd marry you. I'd marry you right now if you'd let me. But I do realize that we are still in school, we still have to deal with Hawk Moth and we have to be girlfriend and boyfriend first." He kissed the tip of her nose.

"Ok." Marinette said.

Adrien drew back stunned. "What?" He shook his head.

"When we get married you're taking my last name." She nodded and went back to studying.

Adrien giggled and grasped her chin, pulling her to look into his eyes. "So… that mean we've moved on to the dating step?"

"Pick me up tonight at 6pm and we'll go have dinner. Right now I want to get back to my Public Relation work. If you're gonna tick off your dad by changing your name I need to know how to spin it in our favour."

Adrien gave her a quick kiss. "There's my Ladybug. Always looking for solutions."

The both went back to studying.

…

…

"Want to get Andre's Ice cream when we're done here? See what he says."

Marinette nodded, "Sure. But you are taking me out for dinner tonight. Nothing fancy."

… "Fine. … You'll let me wine and dine you at some point though?"

… "Of course. At least once a month."


	29. Day 29 - Bien Joue

Marinette lay on the hospital bed. Panting. Sweating. The pain across her abdomen was sharp and intense.

Adrien rushed into the room. "I'm here Marinette, I'm here."

Marinette took in his dishevelled form. The years and all the superheroing of his youth had been very kind to him. His button up was grey and flying open over a green t-shirt with a black paw print on it. It hung out over his dark blue jeans. He hadn't even bothered to lace up his white runners.

Adrien went to Marinette's side, the nurse let him by. He took hold of her hand kissed it. "I told you I'd be here Princess."

"Well, you actually made it early." A lilting voice called out. The doctor came into the room pulling on gloves. "She's not fully dilated yet. It might be another hour or so." The doctor went to the end of the bed and lifted the sheet. "Just another check Mrs. Dupain-Cheng."

The doctor placed her hand under the sheet for a moment. Marinette squirmed a little. "Well, you're closer now. I'd actually say about forty-five minutes now." The doctor pulled the sheet back down and went to the bin to throw out the gloves.

"Dr. Saultier, is everything going alright?" Adrien looked up at the doctor, worry in his eyes.

She chuckled. "Lots of first time fathers are nervous Mr. Dupain-Cheng." She patted his shoulder before turning to leave, "Everything is going fine. There are no indications that there will be complications. Other than it going slow, which can happen for first births, everything is almost textbook."

Marinette looked up at Adrien, "See I told you. We have a little creation goddess on our side. Nothing can go wrong," she whispered.

Adrien chuckled, "Yeah but we also have a god of destruction waiting on the new arrival. Who knows what might happen," he whispered back, leaning in close.

"And Tikki told him she's smack him to kingdom-come if didn't control himself." They both chuckled. At that moment Marinette crushed Adrien's hand for a second. "Just a contraction, nothing wrong." She assured him as a panicked look stole across his face.

The nurse walked up to the baby heart monitor and checked the readings. "Everything is fine Mr. Dupain-Cheng. Your wife's contractions are getting closer but they are very short and intense. Just do like you learned in your birthing classes and things will be fine."

Adrien smiled his thanks and reached down to the bag he brought with him. He pulled out a small media player that had seen better days and handed Marinette the headphones. He started up the music track they had created to help Marinette focus. He snuggled beside her on the bed to wait.

...

...

...

After much waiting, much pushing, and much grunting there was a cry of relief. Then a cry.

Adrien brushed Marinette's bangs aside and kissed her forehead. "You did it Princess." Adrien brushed some tears from his face with a free hand and watched the doctors cut the cord and take Hugo to a small crib/bed to clean him up and weigh him. "I'm going to have to start calling you My Queen instead," he smiled down into Marinette's upturned smiling face.

Marinette was tired. As the doctor was checking over Hugo and a nurse was cleaning her up down there, they waited. Whispering nothing words and sharing kisses with each other.

Dr. Saultier picked up Hugo, wrapped in a hospital blanket and wearing a cap Marinette had knitted, and walked over to the bed. "53 centimetres, 4.1 kilograms. All ten fingers and ten toes. Heartbeat is fine. Temperature is fine too. We'll have the blood tests results back later and let you know if there is anything." She bent down to Marinette and place Hugo in her arms.

Adrien leaned down and kissed her forehead again, "Bien Joue My Lady. Bien Joue."


	30. Day 30 - Us Against the World

"It's us against the world!"

"Adrien, it's just a tournament." Marinette had spent so much time with Adrien the past few weeks getting ready for this 'World Championship Mecha Strike III Tournament' that she could hold a conversation without stuttering at all anymore.

"People here are from around the world so... It's us against the world!" Adrien yelled again.

Marinette could understand his excitement though. His father had actually given him the time off for the tournament. 5 nights and 4 days.

Adrien still had his bodyguard, but he figured he was able to be away because his father had to go and inspect 3 new fabric manufactures that he had been dealing with. He needed to be gone for over two weeks. Usually if his father had to go away for a while, either Adrien was to stay in the mansion or he would go with him. Since the tournament was going to happen during the time Gabriel would be away, Adrien was allowed to go.

Adrien had been so excited he had asked his father to design 3 outfits that reflected the game. One for him, one for Marinette and one for...

"We are only going up against the best of each country that is participating in the tournament. Not all countries sent representatives. Also as we progress through the tournament countries will be eliminated so we would not be going against them either. So logically we would only be able to claim that we are facing an infinitesimally small percentage of the world." Max pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

All three outfits fit the image of their favourite character to play in the game. Adrien looked like a stylized and sleek robotic cat, Marinette looked like a mech style ladybug with a second set of arms hanging at her sides, and Max, while feeling very uncomfortable, looked so cool in a sleek silver-black and green detailed stylized robot.

Max looked around at other people at the tournament and noticed a lot of people dressed up as various characters from the game or kind of like fighter pilots that would man the mechs. It made him feel a little more comfortable, but he still felt self conscious in the the suit.

"It doesn't matter that we will only play against some of the people from the world, it's that we are going against people representing the world." Adrien grinned. He looked around in giddy excitement.

They had a half day inside before they actually announced the starting teams for the tournament so the three of them decided to go exploring. There were stalls selling MS3 inspired foods, clothes and toys. Ad-on packs for the game were also being sold in all the various gaming systems and country specific formats.

"Markov would have loved seeing all this." Max sighed.

Marinette placed an arm around Max, "I would love him to be here too. But even he said that if he were here they would accuse us of using him to cheat."

Max nodded his understanding.

"We can still take lots of pictures and send them to him." Adrien remarked just before stepping between them and grabbing each around the shoulders. "Say Camembert!"

They all looked up at Adrien's bodyguard, he was holding a camera and they smiled. "Camembert!" they shouted together.

"My bodyguard will be taking pictures of us and posting them to my social accounts, if that's ok with you guys. It's a way that father can keep track of me and we can let everyone at home know how we are doing as well as us making our own posts." Adrien waited to see if they agreed to this and the two others nodded.

"I did tell Markov to watch my social media and that I'd try to post stuff for him." Max was slowly feeling better about being away from Paris and his friends. "If you don't mind I think I am going to wander around on my own before the line-up announcements. I want to get pictures of things Markov would like and maybe even text him to keep track of your accounts too."

"Sure," Adrien said. "We can meet up for lunch in the restaurant area. Just look for Gorilla. You can't miss him."

Gorilla grunted. He didn't really like the nickname but, from Adrien and his friends, it felt more like an endearment than a snide remark.

They waved as Max wandered off. Marinette and Adrien started strolling around with Gorilla following them. They laughed at some bad knock-off merch, had people ask if they could take pictures of their outfits, and took pictures of other peoples outfits too.

It was nearing lunch and Adrien asked Marinette if she was ready to eat.

"Yeah, I'm a little hungry."

As they walked towards the food area Adrien couldn't help but wonder if this is what a date felt like.

"Eeep!" Marinette gasped.

Adrien wundered what that was about when he noticed the blush spreading across her cheeks. A blush started to steal across his cheeks too as he said, "Did I say that out loud?"

Marinette furiously nodded her head in agreement, not trusting herself to speak.

Adrien got redder and chuckled. "Umm.. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to embarrass you."

"NO. No. ah, no you, you didn't embarrass me," Marinette stammered.

They walked along for a moment in silence.

Adrien then softly said, "Well, umm.. is this how a date would be like? I've never dated anyone yet and I don't know what you would do on a date. I thought that dating was usually at a movie or going out for food."

"You can do that." Marinette softly replied back. "But not just only that. You can go to fairs, or the park or the beach, a theme park or, or," Marinette waived her hand at the room, "You can even go to a convention or tournament like this."

Adrien nodded. Shyly stealing glances at Marinette. Would this be like dating her? This time he kept the thought in is head.

They got to the restaurant and found Max waiting there. The four of them sat down and had something to eat. Chatting about what they all saw, making plans to go see other areas and just enjoying each others company.

Soon it was time to go and sign into their respective sections. On the last 2 days there would be team matches where the 3 of them would play together. But for now, Max went off to his singles matches and Adrien and Marinette headed off to the duo matches.

"I can't wait until our first round. You are so gonna kick their buts Marinette," Adrien cheered.

"WE are going to kick their butts. You and I are a team, we're doing this together." She laughed.

"Yeah," Adrien smiled. "It's us against the world!" He yelled again to Marinette's amusement.


	31. Day 31 - AN and thank you!

Hey all!

I've been reminded that I didn't update the last chapter yet. Well, it's not so much as a chapter as a page of Author Notes.

I'd like to thank all of you who have read my Adrinette April 2019 entries. I manage the whole month even though I finished it in June. :P

I had a lot of fun doing this. It was an experience.

I'd like to thank my husband for being a proof-reader. And my daughter for doing the artwork for the cover. She also did some proof-reading too.

While I may not post too often, I finally have some free time in my schedule and I think I'm going to try some more writing.

Next year I may go for the long and interconnected story that I've seen some writers do.

Again thank you all for following, bookmarking, liking, koodoing and just reading it.

Laters!


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